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ON MANY SEAS 



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ON MANY SEAS 

THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF A YANKEE 
SAILOR 



FREDERICK BENTON WILLIAMS b^U"^^- 



EDITED BY HIS FRIEND 

WILLIAM STONE BOOTH 







¥rto gork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN &■ CO., Ltd. 
T897 

Al^ rights reserved 






COPYBIGHT, 1S96, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



NotfaoDl) ^ress 

J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



► 



TO THE SAILORS 

WHO HAVE MADE THE AMERICAN FLAG 

KNOWN AND RESPECTED 

IN EVERY HARBOUR OF THE WORLD 



PREFACE 

Whatever value this book may have is due to the fact 
that it is the plain story of a plain man, told in his own 
words. I had often listened to his stories with pleasure, 
and at last persuaded him to write them down, and it is but 
just to him to say that my task as editor has been confined 
to cutting out some yarns which, however suitable to the 
leisure of the forecastle, would have taken up too much 
space in print. 

W. S. B. 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. Chased out of Maine i 

II. My First Voyage 15 

III. Two Glasses of Wine 30 

IV. I SHIP ON THE Tanjore 36 

V. Neptune meets his Match 47 

VI. In Chinese Waters . . . . . -54 

VII. " Country- Wauling " 63 

VIII. Mike Cregan's Yarn . . . . . -70 

IX. The Crash of Icebergs 81 

X. I BECOME A "Lime-Juicer" 91 

XI. Wrecked on Land's End 99 

XII. Almena's Boarding-House no 

XIII. Sentenced for Mutiny 120 

XIV. Death and Resurrection 130 

XV. A Soft-hearted Mate 138 

XVI. French Seamanship 146 

XVII. Black Maria 158 

XVIII. Presidency Gaol 171 

XIX. Scurvy 176 

XX. The Stormy Cape 187 

XXI. Viva Chile! 195 

XXII. In the " Dago " Navy . . . . . . 203 

XXIII. Caught Smuggling 210 

XXIV. Bucked and Gagged 220 

XXV. Wholesale Jail Delivery 232 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS 



CHAP. PAGE 

XXVI. Ship on a Whaler 238 

XXVII. Gamming 245 

XXVIII. Ah! Blow! Blow! 251 

XXIX. CUTTING-IN 261 

XXX. Hunting Fresh Meat . ' . . . .. . 267 

XXXI. Billy and I mutiny . . . . . . 274 

XXXII. NicoLO 285 

XXXIII. Colon 294 

XXXIV. Sawin' 'em off 298 

XXXV. A Calcutta Funeral 307 

XXXVI. Bucko Officers 315 

XXXVII. Drouth in Havre . . . . . . 327 

XXXVIII. Suicide at Sea . . . . . . .333 

XXXIX. Become Second Mate 339 

XL. Yankee Schooners 346 

XLI. Dago Charley 354 

XLII. Straits of Sunda 366 

XLIII. A Javanese Pilot 377 

XLIV. Scenes of my Youth 387 

XLV. Square Accounts with Lynch . . . -395 

XLVI. Captain at last 409 



ON MANY SEAS 



CHAPTER I 

After making Myself a Persona non Grata to Every- 
body ON Land, I go to Sea. — First Lessons in Maritime 
Etiquette. 

Until I was eight years old, I was cared for by a paternal 
uncle who gave me a home at his farm in the interior of 
Maine. Then my father married again and introduced me 
to a stepmother, under whose influence I soon became an 
accomplished liar, and was well "whaled" for it by my 
truth-loving father whenever he found it out. 

It was in 1859 that my father, finding that he could not 
make the farm pay, determined to go to New York and 
work at his trade. Having by this time made myself 2i per- 
sona non grata to my stepmother, it was decided that I 
should accompany my father, so I bade her a tearless adieu 
and never saw her again. 

We landed from the old Fall River steamer Metropolis, 
and before I had been in the city an hour I was hopelessly 
lost. 

It came about in this way. I of course wanted to go out, 
and he told me I might, but not to go far, and to remember 
the number of the shop, — 92. He forgot to tell me the 
name of the street, and not knowing that there was more 
than one 92 in New York, I started off without taking any 
notice of my surroundings ; for did not I know the number 



2 ON MANY SEAS 

of the shop ? and could not I inquire at any time when I 
was ready to return? I finally strayed into the Bowery, 
and was delighted with its bustle and gaiety. After a while, 
thinking I had better return to my father, I asked a boy to 
show me number 92. He pointed across the street, and 
there sure enough was the number, but it didn't look famil- 
iar ; however, I went over and investigated. It was a tene- 
ment house, and I was looking for a shop. 

Instantly I knew I was lost ; for if there were two 92's in 
New York, there might be hundreds. Then I started on a 
weary walk looking for "92's." I did not speak to a single 
soul again that day, neither did I sit down. Every time I 
saw a pohceman I ran for my life. Once I came in sight 
of City Hall Park ; and then I was scared. I thought I had 
come to the end of the city, and if once I got out in the 
country I would never find my way back again, so I turned 
and fled back the way I came. 

I never expected to see my father again, and as I walked 
along I fancied myself growing to be an old man, and no 
one belonging to me would ever know what had become of 
me, so vast did the city seem to me. And so I travelled on 
and on all that long day ; and when it grew dark I crept in 
behind a grocery store coal-box, and lay down on the flag- 
stones, tired, hungry, cold, homesick, heart-sick, and scared 
almost to death. I would even have been glad then to see 
my stepmother. 

After a while a man came along, wearing big boots and 
carrying a lantern. He caught sight of me, and told me to 
get up. I was so stiff and lame that I couldn't get up alone, 
so he helped me, and while he was asking me about myself, 
along came a policeman who took charge of me. How sur- 
prised I was to find the officer pleasant and kind ! I had 
supposed that the police were a kind of ogre. He took me 
to the station house and asked the sergeant if a lost boy 



CHASED OUT OF MAINE 3 

had been called for that day. The sergeant said no, although 
I found out afterwards that my father had telegraphed twice 
to every station in the city. But when they told me that 
they could find my father, I thought that if they were not 
ogres they were certainly at least magicians. 

That night there was a riot in the precinct, and I sat 
in the station and saw the officers bring in prisoners with 
their heads cut, eyes and noses bunged up, clothes torn and 
smeared with dirt ; and although I had never before seen 
a man suffering from the effects of a blow of any kind, yet 
I had become so surfeited with wonders and miracles that 
day that I thought nothing of it, but supposed it was the 
regular nightly custom of the big city. 

I slept in the station-house dormitory, in one of the 
officers' bunks, and every time the watch was relieved 
some big policeman would discover me, give me a shake, 
and roughly make me account for myself; all of which gave 
me a somewhat broken night's rest. In the morning the 
officer who had brought me in the night before took me 
home with him to breakfast, and afterwards, with the assist- 
ance of what little information I was able to give him, he 
found my father and turned me over to him, 

I now entered upon a humdrum existence, attending the 
public schools and living in boarding-houses with my father. 
Shortly after this my stepmother died, and two years later 
my father married again — a very estimable lady whom he 
had known for years. During their courtship she frequently 
took me from school for an outing, and I was her devoted 
admirer until I found that she was to be my new mother, 
when I immediately assumed a defensive attitude, urged 
thereto, no doubt, by some sort of unaccountable instinct, 
probably the result of my late experience. 

At the age of fourteen I ran away, taking with me inci- 
dentally four five-dollar notes which my father had been 



4 ON MANY SEAS 

carefully hoarding to buy himself an overcoat. Having 
thus provided myself with the sinews of w^ar after the tra- 
ditional manner of the world's conquerors, I left a note 
on the table saying that I was bound West to fight Indians, 
and took the night express for Boston, en route to my old 
home in Maine, with the intention of becoming a farmer. 

My uncle had no need of my services, so he turned me 
over to his son-in-law, under contract for one year. I was 
to receive board and schoohng, and at the end of the year 
my wardrobe to be as complete and in as good order as at 
the beginning. 

I found that the poetry of farming was a myth, as I 
tramped wearily through the wet and mud alongside the oxen, 
to plough slowly and laboriously round and round the field 
until it seemed as if the job would never be done. But if I 
was getting disgusted with farming I made no complaints, 
but kept a stiff upper lip ; for I would not humble myself by 
owning that I had made a mistake. So to equahze matters 
a little I tried to divert myself in the evenings, or rather 
' nights ; and being from the city I assumed a kind of leader- 
ship among the neighbouring farmers' boys, who seemed to 
me rather " slow." I soon initiated them into other ways, 
so that we managed to enjoy ourselves fairly well. 

My reputation for good conduct, however, suffered to 
such an extent that, when my year's service with my cousin 
expired, he declined to renew the contract, and as none of 
the other farmers in the neighbourhood seemed eager to 
secure my services, my uncle was obliged to pack me off 
to his wife's brother, who lived ten miles away. 

I did not stay long with Uncle Clark, and the reason was 
Tom Meserve. Tom was the elder brother of one of my 
cronies, Frank. And years before I knew anything of them, 
Tom, becoming tired of the farm had packed his belongings 
in a handkerchief and taken his departure in the dark of the 



CHASED OUT OF MAINE 5 

moon, as runaways have done time out of mind. He did 
not come back for years, but what wonderful tales he had to 
tell when he did come ! And although ray uncle told me 
that he was a " poor miserable good-for-nothin' drunken 
sailor," yet to us boys, listening to Frank's oft-repeated tales 
of his brother's adventures, he was a maritime hero ; and 
we longed to follow his example. 

Being rather homesick and discontented at Uncle Clark's, 
I used to start off every Saturday night after supper and 
walk the ten miles back to my old home, spend Sunday 
with the boys, and return Sunday evening. I usually made 
Frank Meserve's home my headquarters, as he was my par- 
ticular chum. After a while I found that Frank was becom- 
ing discontented, and, on my expressing myself as being 
pretty well tired of farming too, he asked why should we 
not start for New Bedford and go whaling the same as his 
brother had done. Although I didn't particularly care to 
go to sea, still I craved a change from farming, and, besides, 
I disliked to say no to anything that promised to require a 
little nerve, so Frank and I made a compact. He was to 
see the other members of our "Club" and get as many of 
them to come along as he could. They were to leave home 
as soon as the folks were all abed, and walk to where I 
lived. I was to sleep in the barn ; they would call me, 'and 
we would tramp to New Bedford and go whaling. The fol- 
lowing Friday night was agreed upon. I rummaged in the 
attic and found an old knapsack which had belonged to 
Uncle Jake, who was killed in the Civil War. In this I 
packed what I considered the most necessary articles for an 
outfit. I did not then know the old sea song which I have 
since heard in many an old " blubber hunter's " forecastle, 
the refrain of which says : 

" And he'll send you up to the Arctic 
With two suits of Dungaree." 



6 ON MANY SEAS 

Still, I dare say that if I had, it would not have made any 
difference, for I must needs take what I could lay hands on. 
None of us had a cent, and we expected to walk every step 
of the way to New Bedford ; consequently lightness was de- 
sirable in our luggage. I managed to smuggle the knapsack 
out of the barn and hide it away without being caught, and 
that night I slept on the hay. When I woke it was broad 
daylight, and I could hear Uncle Clark feeding the cattle. 
Something had gone wrong, and the boys hadn't arrived. I 
watched my chance, left the barn without being seen, and 
went into the house and told my aunt that I had spent the 
night with one of my cronies, so no suspicions were excited. 

That evening being Saturday, away I went to see Frank 
and find out what was the matter ; somehow his father had 
suspected him, and watched and caught him, and, as he 
was to be the first one to start and pick up the others on his 
route, of course the whole scheme fell through. 

The next day after church Frank and I were sitting in the 
wagon in front of the house, talking over our blighted pros- 
pects, when old man Meserve came up to the wagon, and, 
looking at me very severely, said, " You've had your dinner, 
ain't ye, Fred? " 

"Yes, sir," said I. 

"Well, then, I wish you'd go home. I don't want ye 
round here coaxing Frank off." 

He said further that I had "spiled" every boy in the 
place. 

While we were talking, who should drive into the yard 
but Uncle Clark. 

" Is Fred here? " he asked Mr. Meserve. 

" Yes, he's here, and the sooner you take him away the 
more I shall be 'bliged to ye." 

With that, Uncle Clark drove up to the wagon where we 
sat, and said to me, " Mr. Fred, I will send your clothes to 



CHASED OUT OF MAINE 7 

your Uncle James, and you can go there or anywhere you 
Hke, so long as you don't come back to my house. 1 will 
call on your Uncle James on my way back, and let him 
know what I think of you." 

Here, now, was a pretty mess ! Uncle James had done 
all he could to get me a place, and this was the only one he 
could find for me, and I was turned adrift before two months 
had passed. There was no use in crying over spilt milk, so 
I went down to Uncle James. He asked me what I was 
going to do, and I told him I was off to New Bedford to go 
to sea. " How would I get there ? " "Walk." He laughed 
at the idea, and finally made me a proposition. 

He had a piece of land overgrown with bushes, and offered 
me ten dollars to cut and pile the bushes, and he would board 
me for fifty cents a day while I was doing it. Of course 1 
agreed, for I saw that it gave me a chance to have a little 
money at starting. So I turned to and worked like a 
tiger, and when finished I had three dollars and a half 
coming to me. 

Then my good uncle had a long talk with me. First he 
asked me if I still intended to go to sea, and I told himi I 
did, as I savv no other thing to do. But he advised me to 
return to my father in New York and be guided by him, 
and he would see that I had money for my fare. This 
I finally agreed to do, and two days later I found my- 
self in New York, chased out of the State of Maine, 
ashamed to meet my father, but determined unalterably 
to go to sea. 

On leaving Maine, my good old uncle, who had stuck to 
me through thick and thin, through evil and — I had nearly 
forgotten myself so as to say through o-^(7c/ — report, furnished 
me with money enough to take me to New York. And if I 
except a liberal quantum of good advice, that was about all ; 
for no man who had passed upwards of fifty years on a New 



8 ON MANY SEAS 

England farm would be very apt to give a boy money to 
play ducks and drakes with. 

As I lost my cap overboard from the Fall River boat, the 
first thing I did when I got to New York again was to buy 
a second-hand one from an old Jewish street dealer, for ten 
cents, and with seven cents left in my pocket I set out in 
search of my father. I knew where his shop was in West 
Street, below Rector. It was on the top floor, and there 
was a pair of doors in the front, surmounted by a projecting 
beam to hook on tackle, for hoisting and lowering merchan- 
dise. These doors were open and protected by a crossbar. 
I took my station on the string piece of the wharf directly 
in front of the shop and watched those double doors and 
the street door at the foot of the stairs all day. Several 
times father came to the double doors, and leaning on the 
crossbar stood looking out. The first time he did that, he 
appeared so suddenly and seemed to be looking so straight 
at me, that being not more than three or four hundred feet 
away, in an air line, I was sure he had recognized me, and 
guiltily shook in my shoes, expecting every minute he would 
beckon me to come over ; and then when he went back to 
the office and stayed for hours, I tormented myself with the 
thought that he did not intend to receive me at all. So 
there I sat or stood around all day long, with hunger gnaw- 
ing at my midriff, for not a mouthful had I eaten since the 
day before, in Boston ; and I dared not lose sight of the 
shop, for fear my father might go away and I not know it. 

I had not courage enough to go up and face him, and I 
suppose I hardly knew what I was waiting for, unless to put 
off to the very last this terrible ordeal of meeting him, as, 
in addition to the fact that I had robbed him when I left, I 
had also treated with silent contempt several letters which 
he had written to me during my farming career. No won- 
der that I dreaded to meet him. 



CHASED OUT OF MAINE 9 

Since all things must come to an end some time, even this 
longest of all long weary days finally waned ; working hours 
were over, and I saw my father come out at the street door 
and set out rapidly for home. 

Now my father was always a very rapid walker ; when 
with him I always had to go at a jog trot. I dashed after 
him, grabbed him by the sleeve, and said in a faint voice, 
" Father." He looked round, and, as he has since told me, 
saw to his surprise that he had been accosted by one of the 
young German emigrants who used to be so numerous in 
that part of the city. "Did you speak to me?" said he. 
His face still wore the scowl of the busy man, and in his 
eyes there was not the least sign of recognition. I almost 
gave up, but with an expiring effort, accompanied by a sickly 
grin, I said feebly, "Don't you know me, father?" 

Instantly a genial smile broke over my dad's naturally 
handsome features, and before he had time to speak, I knew 
I was saved. The horrible day through which I had just 
passed was already a half-forgotten nightmare ; and when 
he stuck out his hand, and said in his hearty way, " Why, 
Fred! how are you?" the last vestige of my troubles 
disappeared. 

As we travelled along, father naturally asked me as to 
the why and wherefore of my return, and I frankly told him 
the whole story. I noticed him looking askance at my 
make-up, and when we arrived at the ferry, putting his hand 
in his pocket he turned to me and asked, " Got any money?" 

" Seven cents, sir," said I. 

He laughed, and remarked that I couldn't have travelled 
much farther, anyway. He now told me that he and his 
wife had broken up housekeeping and were boarding with 
her sister, which was ample notice to me that they were 
living in better style than I had ever known. A nice out- 
look, truly, for me with my fantastic rig ! We reached the 



lO ON MANY SEAS 

house, and father took me directly up to their room, where 
my stepmother was putting the finishing- touches to her' 
toilet, preparatory to going down to tea. She was so glad 
to see me that she could hardly maintain her proper dignity ; 
her eyes dilated and the blood swept to the very roots of 
her hair as she exclaimed, with ill- suppressed maternal love 
and pride, " Well, what in the world have you come back 
for?" 

I told my father of my intention to go to sea. He tried 
to dissuade me, as he had been familiar all his life with 
ships, and knew what a very undesirable calling it was. He 
urged me rather to get a position in an office which he 
thought he could obtain for me through his trade connec- 
tions, and grow to be a business man ; but that would neces- 
sitate my living at home, and when I remembered the 
effusive welcome with which I had been received by the 
senior member of the firm, I persistently dechned : not 
caring to become a spoiled child, but preferring rather to 
carve out my own fortune, good or ill. 

I wished to go on a voyage to India, or China, or some 
other strange land where I could see wonderful things. 

There was but one China trader in port, the ship Wind- 
ward, owned and sailed by Captain William Barstow of 
Thomaston, Maine. Father was acquainted with the cap- 
tain, having had business relations with him, so we boarded 
the good ship where she lay at pier 45, North River. She 
was the regulation down-east built ship of that day, of sixteen 
hundred tons register, and as I looked over her decks with the 
expectation of becoming a member of her crew I thought 
she was splendid ! grand ! magnificent ! But when we came 
to talk with Captain Barstow, my hopes were dashed. And 
with what veneration and awe I regarded him ! He was 
not only captain, but owner also of that splendid great ship. 
Could human ambition ever aspire to more than that? 



CHASED OUT OF MAINE II 

A sea-captain was in my estimation an absolutely won- 
derful person. Only to think of his knowledge and his 
power ! Here was this huge ship that appeared to be as 
stationary as the docks and warehouses themselves. And 
yet I knew that this man before me could handle her as 
though she were not more than ten feet long. He could 
do anything with her. He could start from New York and 
go to any place in the world where there was water enough 
to float her ; and go there just as surely and by the most 
desirable route as though there were a road all the way with 
a fence each side of it. Nor was that all. That man before 
me knew just exactly what to do and the right time to do it, 
no matter what dangers threatened. For twenty-one years 
he had sailed her, and during all those years he had de- 
feated the winds and waves in their ceaseless efforts to 
wreck the old ship. Could I ever become like him ? I 
certainly meant to become a captain ; but when I thought 
of all that I must learn, I felt tired beforehand. 

But to return to business. Captain Barstow was a man 
with an idea, and he was happily so situated, owning his 
ship, that he could carry out his idea to its logical con- 
clusion. He thought it was discreditable to the American 
mercantile marine to be largely manned and officered by 
foreigners, and he proposed to do what one man could to 
remedy the evil. So he told us he intended to take with 
him on every voyage as many American boys as he could 
accommodate, and give them every chance to fit themselves 
for master's and mate's berths. " But," said he, " I have 
promised all the boys I can possibly take with me this 
voyage, Mr. Williams; I did intend to fit up a place in the 
after part of the forward house to accommodate six or eight 
boys, but I have spent twelve thousand dollars on the old 
ship now, and you can't see it ; so I'll have to wait until I 
come back again, when I promise to take your son with me, 



12 ON MANY SEAS 

if he still wishes to go to sea. In the meantime, I should 
prefer that he should not sail in any other vessel, as I wish 
my boys not to have any previous experience of ships and 
sailors. The best thing for him to do while waiting is to 
go to school. There is a very good school in the interior 
x)f the State, where I have a Chinese boy ; I can recom- 
mend it as being both good and reasonable in price, should 
you desire to send your boy there until I return." 

Father thanked the captain for his kind promise and also 
for his advice, and we went ashore. As we were walking 
up the dock, father said to me, " Well, Fred, what do you 
think of Captain Barstow's proposition for you to go to 
school until he comes back?" What did I think of it? 
I laughed it to scorn. I would never go to school again. 
I was going to sea; and right away, too. "Well, then," 
said father, " I know of but one more chance. There's a 
Fairhaven schooner down here ; a brand-new one. I am 
acquainted with the captain ; let us go and see if he wants 
a boy." So we boarded the schooner A. F. Kijnberly, and 
father introduced me to Captain Nelson as his " son with 
a hankering to go to sea." 

" All right," said Captain Nelson. " I'll take him, and 
give him five dollars a month." 

"Thank you, captain," said father. " I didn't expect you 
to give him anything ; but if you will only take him along, 
if he isn't able to pay his way, why, perhaps I can help pay, 
it for him." All of which I thought might better have been 
left unsaid. 

However, the captain stuck to his bargain; and so, 
instead of going to China in a fine, big ship, I shipped 
in a little three-hundred- ton schooner for Fernandina, 
Florida. 

But I was in luck, after all ; for Captain Barstow and the 
Windward met the proverbial fate of the pitcher that goes 



CHASED OUT OF MAINE 13 

too often to the well ; for they were never heard from after 
the pilot left them outside of Sandy Hook. 

Captain Nelson was a Dane by birth, although he had 
been so long in this country, and saiUng out of Fairhaven, 
that he had all the earmarks of a regular Connecticut 
Yankee. The mate, Mr. Johnson, was a Norwegian, a short, 
rather square-built, and sinister-looking man ; I never liked 
him very well. My immediate boss, the steward (and also 
cook), Herbert Stacy, was a fine fellow. He had been with 
Captain Nelson for years, and before had been whaling. 
I never tired of listening to the yarns of which he had an 
abundant supply ; but as I shall have enough of ray own 
to tell, before I get through, I will not bother to retail his 
here. 

My first job was to scrub the brass work about the wheel 
and screw steering gear, and that evening I learned my 
first lesson in marine economy and naval etiquette. The 
schooner being brand-new, there was a deal of work to do 
about the rigging, which had stretched all out of shape on 
the passage from Fairhaven to New York. Consequently, 
the captain had the crew all sent aboard several days before 
sailing, to get things in shape. On this, my first day, they 
had been setting up the lower rigging, and the decks were 
considerably littered, when the mate ordered me to sweep 
up. First, I went round and gathered up a handful of 
" shakings " ; that is, odds and ends of rope yarns, and so 
forth, and with them a brand-new piece of inch-and-a-half 
manilla rope, about six or seven feet long, which had been 
cut off for some purpose ; and supposing it to be of no 
value where there was such an abundance of ropes of all 
sorts, I carelessly threw it overboard. The mate was on the 
poop, and, hearing the splash, looked, and saw what had 
caused it. Down he came, on the main deck, and asked me 
who threw that piece of rope overboard. I told him I did ; 



14 ON MANY SEAS 

and then I got a lecture on economy, so emphasized and 
punctuated with choice expletives, that I have never for- 
gotten it, to this day. He told me I was the most useless 

d fool that he had ever come across during a long 

and varied career, and threatened to throw me over after it. 
While the squall was at its height, the captain came over 
the gangway. 

"What's the matter, Mr. Johnson?" said he. 

" Oh, this d boy has made a good beginning," said 

he. 

" Why, what has he done ? " 

" Only thrown half a coil of new rope overboard, so far ; 
I don't know what he'll do before he gets the decks 
cleared up." 

"I did not," said I, coming forward. "I only threw over 
a little piece. I didn't suppose it was good for anything, 
or I wouldn't have done it." 

The mate looked daggers at me, and the captain said, so 
sternly that I never forgot it, " Let me tell you something, 
boy. Never contradict an officer ; never speak unless you 
are spoken to ; and always say ' sir ' to your superiors, or 
you'll get into trouble." 

And so I entered upon my sea life, and learned two 
valuable lessons the first day ; namely, the necessity of the 
strictest economy on board ship, and to obey under any 
and all circumstances. 



CHAPTER II 

A Kindly Cook. — Stormy Hatteras. — I become an 
"Officer" and defend Mine Honour. — Before the 
Mast. — Hard Work and Plenty of it. — Mobile. — 
Havana. 

I SHALL touch but lightly on my early voyages as nothing 
of any particular interest occurred in them. The schooner 
was loaded with general cargo, and in addition we had quite 
a number of passengers. There was a clergyman and his 
wife, with two Irish girls and a coachman. There was a 
negro cook working his passage out, and sixteen Irish 
labourers on deck who were going out to work for Uncle Sam, 
repairing some forts which had been damaged during " the 
late unpleasantness." Last but by no means least was Cap- 
tain Ginnerty; he was an ex-captain who had gone into 
business. It was he who had chartered the schooner for 
this voyage, and he was going along to look out for his 
interests. 

We got our casks all in ; caulked and tarpaulined hatches ; 
filled and lashed water-casks ; got the passengers aboard ; 
passed the tow-line to the tug ; pulled in our shore- fasts and 
were off. 

The ladies of course became sea-sick the instant we 
swung clear of the pier-head ; but although I was as green 
as any one aboard, I never was sick a minute. Afterward 
when I remembered that fact, the cook said he knew all the 
time that I wouldn't be sea-sick. 

15 



l6 ON MANY SEAS 

On the afternoon in which we neared Hatteras the breeze 
freshened, and in the second dog-watch, much to my sur- 
prise, the flying jib and main topmast staysail were taken in. 
I asked the steward the reason, for it seemed to me that the 
harder the wind blew, the faster we should go ; and here we 
were taking the sail off her. While he was trying to enlighten 
my land ignorance as to some of the manifold reasons familiar 
to a seaman for shortening sail, the cook came along and 
began to relate alleged sea-experiences of his own to the 
two Irish girls until he got them so scared that they didn't 
dare to go below, for indeed the wind and sea were drawing 
ahead, and she was beginning to dip her nose into it pretty 
lively, scooping up tons of salt water which came rushing aft 
as she rose on the next sea, as though it would sweep the 
cabin clean off her. So to calm their fears he told them 
they need not mind anything unless they heard the captain 
sing out, " All hands save ship ! " I went to sea for many 
a year after that and have been in ships that were not 
saved, but I have yet to hear that order. 

The next morning when I came on deck she was bobbing 
at it, with nothing showing but the fore staysail with the 
bonnet off and a close-reefed mainsail. It was blowing so 
hard that I could not put my nose over the weather rail. I 
noticed the captain looking anxiously away to leeward, and 
I looked too, and could see a long, dark line on the horizon 
which the steward, who just then came skating along from 
the galley with a coffee-pot in his hand, told me was Hatteras; 
and volunteered the cheerful information that if the wind 
didn't moderate or shift, my carcass would in all probability 
be rolling in the surf before another morning dawned. 

Just after this pleasant bit of intelligence had penetrated 
my brain the captain roared out, "Call the watch." The 
words were hardly out of his mouth before the mate was at 
his side receiving orders, and the watch below were coming 



MY FIRST VOYAGE 1/ 

on deck. We then loosed, close-reefed, and set the foresail 
and shook out two reefs from the mainsail. We had to take 
the halyards to the capstan and heave the sail up ; for our 
small crew, even with the assistance of the deck passengers, 
could no more hoist those sails than they could have hoisted 
the keelson out of her. 

It took us a good two hours to get the " rags " on her, 
and the7i how she did dance ! It seemed as though she 
leapt more than half her length out of water every time 
she rose on a sea, — she was close-hauled but with a good 
full, — and then she would take a flying leap and bury herself 
in the next sea with a shock that seemed to bring her up all 
standing. At every plunge she would bury her bowsprit and 
topgallant forecastle clean to the windlass bitts, and the 
water in the lee waist was as green as it was over the side. 
All hands came aft. There was no living forward of the 
poop. By and bye she made a weather roll, and we saw the 
lee bulwarks bulge out and float away like a lot of wet paper. 
After this she made a Kttle better weather of it, for the im- 
mense weight of water was not retained on deck, but passed 
overboard at once. 

I overheard Ginnerty say to Captain Nelson, " If you 
don't take some of this sail off" of her, she will start a butt 
and go down like a stone." 

"And if I do take any of it off her, she will be on Hat- 
teras before ten o'clock to-night ; she is hardly holding her 
own now. No, sir ; if she can't live through this breeze, let 

her go to h flying." And so we banged away all the 

livelong day. 

In the cabin it was misery ; the passengers were all sick 
and frightened to death with no one to attend to them 
in the least, for the steward and I were securing things 
which were continually " fetching away " ; and making 
coffee on the cabin stove for the men. The captain had 
c 



1 8 ON MANY SEAS 

the pump tried every half-hour, but she was as tight as a 
bottle. 

When it got dark, although no one could say that it had 
moderated, he shook a reef out of the foresail ; for as long 
as she didn't leak with the pounding she had got all day, he 
said he wouldn't let her drift ashore for the want of carrying 
sail enough to claw off. 

By this time we had all got so used to the violent motion 
that it didn't seem nearly so awful as at first, and in fact it 
was not, for the bulwarks being now for the most part gone 
on both sides, the seas simply breached clean over her with- 
out finding much of anything to hit except the deck-house, 
and that stood the pounding all right. 

When I turned into my bunk that night, not knowing, as 
the saying is, " what minute might be my next," I doubt if I 
was a much more enthusiastic sailor than I had been farmer 
a few short months before ; but I was tired and had been 
wet, cold, and hungry all day, so when I once got warm 
under the blankets I went sound asleep, and it seemed but 
a few minutes before I heard the steward shouting, " Come, 
lad ! are ye dead? Git up there ! " 

Out I jumped, expecting the Lord knows what, only to 
see the sun shining gloriously down through the cabin sky- 
light, and to feel the easy pitch of the schooner as she rode 
the now lazy swells. It was eight o'clock; the steward had 
kindly allowed me to sleep on, and when I went on deck I 
found as beautiful a morning as heart could wish for. 

After rounding Hatteras v/e dropped immediately into 
fine weather, and the poor Irishers crawled out from all 
sorts of holes and corners, and hung their clothes to dry on 
every available projection all over the vessel. They hung 
themselves in an unbroken line over the weather rail, and the 
genial sun warmed them into life and volubihty, until Cap- 
tain Nelson said he could hardly imagine himself aboard a 



MY FIRST VOYAGE I9 

Yankee schooner, but would almost think he was in the heart 
of Tipperary. 

In a few days we raised the Florida coast and sailed up 
into the little port of Fernandina. At that time there were 
only a few houses there. It was just at the close of the war, 
and the South was miserably poor. I took great interest in 
listening to the conversation of the darkies, the first genuine 
southern darkies I had ever seen. Our crew being rather 
hght to handle the cargo, the captain hired four of them to 
help, and I heard them one day discussing '•' Marse Linkum " 
during the dinner hour. How they did venerate that name ! 
and what wonderful qualifications they attributed to the 
martyr President ! 

One of them averred that he had seen him. " Gret big 
man, bigges' man ever I seed ; fine-lookin' man ; he all dress 
up sojer clo'es. Big fedder in he hat — nigger gib him Con- 
federate bill, if only for five cent ; gib im back gole dorlar, 
no gib white man dorlar; no gib im nufifin, only nigger." 

In due time we got our homeward bound cargo in and 
pulled up our mud hook, and pointed her nose for New 
York again. On the passage home the steward was taken sick. 
Poor fellow ! he had the germs of consumption in his system, 
and I have no doubt is dead and buried years ago. As he 
was unable to go to the galley, the captain appointed me to 
act as cook. I didn't want to, and " kicked " ; but he told 
me it was an honour to be a cook, " for I assure you," said 
he, " a cook is an officer aboard of a vessel " — a statement 
I disbelieved at the time, and have never seen confirmed 
since. 

However, officer or not, I became cook pro tem ; and 
such a cook! Our "doctor" — for so the ship's cook is 
called — was a scrupulously neat and tidy man about his galley 
and his person. But when I took charge there was a change. 
I know not how it happened, but I was not in that galley an 



20 ON MANY SEAS 

hour before it and myself were alike a " holy show." I was 
grease and soot from head to foot. The galley was not big 
enough to hold the pots and kettles which were never in the 
way before. The meals were never ready on time, nor fit 
to eat when they were ready. One evening a big Swede, 
Martin Wilson, came to the galley door bringing a sample 
biscuit which he declared was more fit for a deep sea lead 
than for human food. 1 was tired, dirty, disgusted, and 
mad clean through, and I told him to go to h . 

" You tell me that, you dirty swab ! " said he, and he put 
his foot inside the galley door. 

Now a cook's galley is his castle, and I knew that ; so I 
grabbed the potato-masher and made a lick at him, but the 
schooner lurching just then, I only hit the side of the galley 
door. The next instant I was yanked out on deck, and I 
don't know exactly what happened for a httle while, but 
after the earthquake was over I went and told the captain 
that I would do no more cooking unless the crew were kept 
out of the galley. 

A few mornings after that, Wilson, who had made up with 
me, came to the galley door before six o'clock with his tin 
pan, and handing it to me said he was going to the wheel 
from six to eight, and, as it was a cold morning, asked me 
to have something hot for his breakfast. 

I told him all right, and about five minutes before eight 
bells I put a shovel full of fire in his pan, covered it with 
a tin pie-plate, and when he came from the wheel I set it 
on his two open palms. Then there was war again. 

When we reached New York we had not been gone quite 
two months and I had not much pay coming to me, so on 
the captain suggesting that I should remain on board for 
another voyage, I agreed. For, in the first place, it would 
save me from going home, and as my clothes, which were 
funny enough before, were worse now, that was a very im- 



MY FIRST VOYAGE 21 

portant consideration. Besides, my pay would be going on 
all the time. So it was decided that this voyage I should 
go in the forecastle as deck boy. By this means he could 
take my friend Martin Wilson in the cabin as second mate 
and still have four hands before the mast without increasing 
his expenses. Martin would have to take his trick at the 
wheel just the same, and would relieve the captain from 
keeping watch at night. And although I would be in 
Martin's watch, as the mate promised " to keep the flies off 
me," my prospects were not dull at any rate. 

This voyage we were bound to Mobile, and on the pas- 
sage out after we got around Hatteras I was allowed to steer 
in fine weather, and as I soon got the hang of it, I did about 
all the steering in my watch. In the daytime when the 
captain was on deck he kept Martin or Mr. Wilson and 
Raynor (the other man being about the decks) ; and in the 
night when the ''old man" was below, Mr. Wilson, being 
boss, walked the quarter-deck, while Raynor and I relieved 
each other at the wheel and lookout. 

It was on this voyage that I learned to handle myself 
aloft, and soon, by the aid of an abundance of curses from 
Mr. Wilson, got so that I could set, furl, or shift over a gaff 
topsail with the best of them. In fact, I began to be of 
some use, knew the ropes, and when an order was given 
me, knew what it meant and could fulfil it. Of course 
I was not set at tasks requiring a knowledge of very 
much seamanship. On this passage to Mobile I first 
saw a foreign land. It was at Abaco, or the " Hole in 
the Wall," a small island in the Bahamas with a natural 
tunnel through it. 

On arriving in Mobile Bay, we learned that the natural 
water route up to the city was still blocked by the torpedoes 
placed there by the Confederates. So we had to go a 
roundabout way which took us considerably above the city 



22 ON MANY SEAS 

and then back down to it again. Only small vessels could 
get there at all. 

It was in Mobile that I first saw the " cotton-box," a huge 
craft built of yellow pine plank, the seams caulked and 
pitched, and then loaded with cotton bales, hundreds and 
hundreds of them. The craft is propelled by huge s^veeps 
made by spiking a short piece of plank to the end of a 
long, heavy pole. It is then balanced in a big rowlock on 
the gunwale of the box, and the boatman, bearing down on 
the inboard end to raise his plank oar-blade out of the 
water, walks away aft on the top of the cotton bales, then 
letting up on his end, the plank takes the water, and he 
walks away forward. By this slow means, aided of course 
by the current, they propel these immense floating masses 
hundreds of miles down the river to a seaport, where the 
cotton is shipped, and the box broken up and sold for 
lumber. 

One of these "boxes" lay under our bow after having 
discharged her cotton. The captain was an old "jay" with 
one leg and a crutch. He was a typical "poor white" of 
those days — so ignorant that he was hardly a degree re- 
moved from the brute ; or, if he was, it would be hard to say 
on which side was the brute — whether above or below. He 
had for a partner what in this part of the world we should 
call a tramp ; and between them they had a female of their 
own species. They had probably got their pay, for at in- 
tervals during the day either the executive officer or the 
captain's lady was seen to go ashore and return with a small 
demijohn. 

Along in the afternoon there was a general row, in which 
the captain lost his crutch and found a black eye. A truce 
was patched up, however, through the efforts of the lady. 
About four o'clock in the morning we heard an awful racket, 
— cursing and swearing, a woman's screams, and then a shot 



MY FIRST VOYAGE 23 

and a splash. We found out that the old fellow had got 
jealous of his mate and his wife, and had driven them both 
out of the miserable hole they occupied in one end of the 
box. He followed them on deck, bombarding them with 
his old Confederate musket ; and then, in trying to get away 
from him, being too drunk to handle themselves, they fell 
overboard and were both drowned. Our captain reported 
the matter to the police in the morning, and they told him 
it was a good job, and they were only sorry that one of them 
had escaped. The murderer stumped around his old cotton- 
box all day, shaking his fist at us and shouting that he was a 
Johnny Reb and didn't care a rap for Abe Lincoln, Jeff 
Davis, or any other man. And I guess he didn't. 

Captain Nelson chartered the schooner for Havana, and, 
as soon as the cargo was discharged, we began hard work in 
earnest. Our cargo was to consist of huge yellow pine 
spars and sawn timber. The spars came rafted alongside. 
We took out our timber port in the bow, rigged inboard and 
outboard tackles, and hove them in with the capstan. This 
was not such very hard work. About all I had to do was to 
sit and " hold turn " while the men walked around the cap- 
stan, and the big logs slid slowly in through the port. But 
when we came to the sawed timber, that was different. We 
left the schooner in the yawl, all hands except the mate and 
cook, between three and four o'clock in the morning, be- 
cause we had a nice long pull of three or four hours before 
we could get to the sawmill where we commenced to work. 
As we had had our breakfast before we started, nobody 
could charge us with not being early birds. 

At the sawmill there was a lot of timber all cut and ready 
for us, floating in the water. These timbers were four by 
six and four by eight, from fifteen to thirty feet long, and as 
heavy as railroad iron. We had to fish them out of the 
water, and, taking them on our shoulders, carry them across 



24 ON MANY SEAS 

a neck of land to the main river, where we launched them 
again, and Mr. Wilson made them up into a raft. As there 
were but four of us altogether, I was enabled to distinguish 
myself by taking one end of a timber on my shoulder just as 
often as anybody else did. Remember, I was only eighteen 
years of age at that time; and, as it was hot weather, we 
had only thin shirts over our shoulders, and the timber was 
dripping wet. We were quite unused to that kind of work, 
and the natural result was that long before night our 
shoulders were as raw as beef. 

Mr. Wilson built the raft up layer by layer, but the green, 
yellow pine was so heavy that it sank immediately, so there 
was never more than the top course in sight, thereby depriv- 
ing us even of the poor satisfaction of seeing the result of 
our labour. But we had a chance to reahze that we had 
accompHshed something before we got through with it. 
The old man^ allowed us just enough time to swallow the 
grub we had brought with us, and then "turned us to" 
again, saying he wanted to get the raft made up so that we 
could get back before it was too late. And, sure enough, by 
the time it got too dark to see to work any more, we started 
to tow that raft alongside. 

You can imagine the job we had when I tell you that the 
raft was twelve feet deep, fifteen feet wide, and thirty long, 
and you know the physical condition we were in. We had 
been working hard, kilKngly hard, for over fifteen hours, and 
were now starting back with this raft over a course which we 
had been nearly four hours covering in the morning with the 
boat alone. When I made some disparaging remarks, the 
old man asked me what I was kicking about, said this was 

1 It is perhaps necessary to explain that among American sailors the 
captain is invariably niclcnamed the " old man," even if he is only a boy. 
When, therefore, this term is used by the narrator, it must always be under- 
stood as meaning the captain, except in the few instances where it is evi- 
dent from the context that an elderly man is meant. 



MY FIRST VOYAGE 2 5 

sailoring, and if I didn't like it, we were in a home port and 
I could quit. The old man stayed on the raft, and Mr. 
Wilson got into the boat to steer — to steer, mind you, a 
boat that was not moving through the water a foot a minute. 
If he had taken an oar and helped pull, and let me, the boy, 
who was so tired and sore that I could hardly lift my oar out 
of the water, do the steering, it would have helped us all out. 

So thoroughly, however, is discipline hammered into the 
seaman's very nature, that although all realized it just as well 
as I did, yet not a man dared utter even a hint of what he 
thought. There sat the strong two-hundred-pound Swede in 
the stern of the boat doing nothing, while I, an American 
Crown Prince, laboured like a veritable galley slave, and did 
not dare to give utterance to the virtuous indignation with 
which my soul was bursting. 

So we toiled along painfully and slowly, and by and bye 
the old man said he felt a breeze and told us to drop along- 
side and give him the boat's mast and sail. We did so, and 
after a time he managed to step the mast among the timber 
and set the sail ; and sure enough there came up quite a 
httle bit of wind, and the sail helped us enough to bring us 
alongside the schooner before one o'clock in the morning. 
Otherwise I don't believe we would have got back before 
the next afternoon. We hoisted the boat and turned in, 
after setting the anchor watch, of which each of us had to 
keep an hour, and call the cook at five o'clock, and then they 
had the gall to call us at six o'clock to get in the timber. 
I suppose this was sailoring too. In the language of the 
poet, *' Who wouldn't sell a farm and go to sea?" 

I may here remark that on board any well-regulated vessel 
a boy is very much inferior to everybody and everything on 
board. Everybody is his boss, and they all despise him as 
heartily and treat him as badly as if he had committed some 
heinous offence. Now I had not heretofore cultivated any 



26 ON MANY SEAS 

very great amount of humility, so on board I asserted my 
individuality in a manner that was extremely shocking to the 
sensibilities of the sailors and the mate. I beheve he would 
have been willing to sink the schooner with all on board, 

himself included, in order to rid the world of " that d 

impident whelp." 

Now it is an old-established custom, so old that it is 
beheved to have originated in Noah's ark, that the boy, 
when there is one, shall bring the grub from the galley to 
the forecastle, carry back the dishes, sweep out and scrub 
the forecastle. 1 have never but once heard the propriety 
of this custom questioned, and that was by myself on the day 
after our arrival with the raft. 

After dinner we all lit our pipes and tumbled into our 
bunks for a little rest before going out in the blazing sun 
again to work. We had used Raynor's chest for a table, 
and left it Httered with pots, pans, bones, and potato peel- 
ings. Raynor, who like the other two was a Swede, seeing 
me turn into my bunk the same as the rest, sung out to me, 
" Hey, boy, hullo ! ain' you goin' to carry dem tings back to 
de galley and clean off mine kist?" 

" Well, I guess not ; I brought the grub from the galley, 
and you can carry the dishes back and clean off your own 
kistr 

Here another spoke up with, " Veil, my golly ; dat boy 

he got a h of a cheek. Ven you vas in a Svedish 

vessel, I bet you you don't talk like dat to de men. Boys 
know his place dere." "Well," said I, "I am in an 
American vessel and am not taking any lip from a lot of 
Dutch sailors, and don't you forget it." Here Raynor joined 
in again, and I forget just what he said ; in fact, I am not sure 
that I ever knew. What I do know is that he wound up 
with the remark that he could " see dot on his tobax bag," 
intimating that I had been stealing his tobacco. That made 



MY FIRST VOYAGE 2/ 

me mad, and I jumped out of my bunk, and grabbing him 
by the collar of his shirt with both hands, and calling him a 
" stockfish-pounding Dutch liar," I yanked him out of his 
bunk on his head. Instantly the place was in an uproar. 
Such a breach of nautical etiquette was entirely unprece- 
dented. The " boy," who should be the unprotesting recipi- 
ent of everybody's kicks and cuffs, had not only refused to 
do as he was told, but had actually bearded an able seaman 
in his bunk. 

So they all piled out on top of me. As the place was so 
small they were unable to do much damage, but they did 
manage to hustle me out on deck, Raynor following. He 
and I, punching one another and faUing around the deck, 
attracted the mate's attention, who was smoking under the 
awning aft, and he came running forward shouting, " Kill 

him ! d him, kill him ! " But I wasn't so easily killed. 

Although Raynor was a man and I was a boy, he was a 
Swede and I was a Yankee, with the very natural result that 
I could get in several licks to his one. 

Just as I heard the mate coming, hollering, "Kill him !" 
Raynor, in making a blind rush at me, tripped over the 
anchor chain on deck and sprawled his whole length right 
at my feet. I was wild with rage and fear, for I expected 
they would kill me, so I grabbed a capstan bar out of the 
rack on the break of the topgallant forecastle and swung it 
round my head in crazy joy, to beat his brains out, when a 
sinewy arm encircled my neck from behind, and once again 
I was flung on my back on deck with a force that seemed 
to dislocate every joint in my body, and I heard Captain 
Nelson say, "Here, what's all this about? Are the whole 
crew, mate and all, trying to hck the boy?" 

It seems that the old man heard the mate as he came 
running forward, shouting "Kill him!" and he followed 
after just in time to prevent me from doing some kilhng on 



28 ON MANY SEAS 

my own account. Of course we all told different stories, but 
the captain had been a good many years at sea, and you 
couldn't fool him much. He saw, right away, what the 
cause of all the trouble was, and he told the men that he 
hadn't hired any servant for them this voyage, reminded 
them that Swedish customs didn't prevail in America, and 
established the rule that hereafter we should all take turns 
doing the housework in the forecastle. He told me that I 
should remember that I was a boy and they were men ; and 
while I need not submit to impositions, yet a certain amount 
of respect, or at least of deference, was due from me to 
them ; adding with a scarcely perceptible twinkle that he 
guessed we understood one another better now than we 
had before. 

To the mate he said nothing in our hearing, but the 
steward told me afterwards that the captain told the mate 
down in the cabin that it was lucky that he (the captain) 
got there when he did, as he guessed the boy would have 
cleaned them all out. 

This little squall cleared the atmosphere so that for the 
remainder of the voyage I was on terms of the most perfect 
equality with the foremast hands, and even Mr. Johnson, the 
mate, quit cursing me unless I was aloft and he on deck. 

About every other day we had to go up to the sawmill to 
get a raft of timber ; but I will do the old man justice to 
say that he never soaked us quite so badly as he did on the 
first trip. He would manage so that we could get through 
our day's work in sixteen or eighteen hours, and " have all 
the rest of the time for ourselves." Then on the other days 
we took in and stowed not only the rafts that we brought 
down the river, but also the big logs that yellow Sam 
brought down from the creek, so that in three or four 
weeks we were loaded. We took also four big sticks on 
deck, two on each side, their forward ends on the topgallant 



MY FIRST VOYAGE 2g 

forecastle, and their after ones on the poop. Then after 
filling in between with the small timber, the whole was 
securely lashed and life lines run along between the fore 
and main rigging on each side, for the deck load being 
higher than the vessel's rail, there was nothing to keep us 
from falling directly overboard, should we lose our footing. 
We had to seize temporary belaying-pin rails to the rigging, 
and put a timber reef in the mainsail, and then at last we 
were off for Havana, where we arrived after a short and 
uneventful voyage across the placid Gulf of Mexico. 



CHAPTER III 

The Spanish National Pastime. — Two Glasses of Wine. 
— The Kedge Anchor. — My First Square-Rigger. 

In Havana we had only the ordinary duties of sailors in a 
foreign port, and so could count at least upon regular hours 
and runs ashore. Every Sunday there was a so-called Bull 
Fight outside the city, and of course I took it in. The whole 
affair was to me disgusting and horrible, but how those Cubans 
did enjoy it ! They stood up and yelled themselves fairly 
hoarse, "Bravo Toro ! Bravissimo I" I didn't care to stay 
it out, and Raynor, who was with me, had got enough too, 
so with difficulty we edged our way out through the dense, 
ill-smelling crowd and made our way back to the city. 

Raynor asked me to have a glass of wine, and being ex- 
ceedingly thirsty and warm I agreed ; so we entered a wine- 
shop where a lot of natives were drinking, and were served 
with two immense tumblers of what seemed to me to be 
a most harmless and delicious wine. After drinking it, 
it tasted so good that I asked Raynor if he would have 
another, and he agreed, so I called for it. 

" Otro? " inquired the barkeeper, with a tone and look of 
surprise. 

I answered, "Si," and noticed that the crowd of natives 
regarded us curiously, and I told Raynor it seemed not to 
be the fashion in Havana to treat back again. Well, we had 
our wine and it was splendid ; then we started for the ship, 

30 



TWO GLASSES OF WINE 3 1 

and I noticed, as soon as we got out in the street, that I 
didn't feel tired any more. Not only that, but I also felt 
elated, happy. I wanted to be friendly and affectionate to 
Raynor, but he told me not to be a d fool. 

When we got down to the wharf I tried to hail the 
schooner, but couldn't pronounce her name if you would 
give her to me for doing so. Somehow things seemed to 
swim. I could hardly keep my feet, even when standing 
still. 

Pretty soon I saw two boats putting off from alongside, 
and asked Raynor, as well as I could, where the old man 
had got the other boat, as I had never seen her before ; and 
just exactly like the old one too. He told me to shut up, 
that I was drunk, and that there "was only one boat. Of 
course I denied the soft impeachment, for I had never been 
drunk in my life. 

In the meantime the two boats arrived and Raynor got 
into both of them. I then noticed for the first time that 
the same man was scuUing them both ; and while I stood 
undecided into which one I should step, Raynor grabbed 
me by the arm and yanked me into both of them. 

I was so tickled with the idea of going aboard in two 
boats, and so perfectly happy in a general way, that I sat in 
the stern sheets and laughed all the way aboard. 

The sailors were afraid the old man would see the con- 
dition I was in, so they quietly hailed the deck and then 
dropped under the bow, and the steward and the other fore- 
mast hand dropped a bowline over, and I was ignominiously 
hauled up over the bow Uke a sack of potatoes, drunk for 
the first time in my life. I have heard drunks defined in 
various ways ; as "deliberate," "accidental," etc., and surely 
mine might in all truthfulness be termed " unintentional," 
for I had no more idea of doing anything of the kind than 
if I had stepped into a drug store on a hot day to take a 



32 ON MANY SEAS 

soda water. When I got sober I understood why the bar- 
tender and the others had looked at us so when I had 
called for the second round. They knew the strength of 
the wine and its probable effect. 

The next day the old man asked me how I liked the bull 
fight, and I told him that for genuine fun and enjoyment 
I had rather go to a down-east hog-killing. And so I 
would. 

By this time we had got our cargo out. We then loaded 
with sugar and molasses and returned to New York. 

During our stay there I had bought a Kedge Aiichor, a 
most comprehensive work by a naval officer, and containing, 
I may say, the entire trade of seamanship, from the knotting 
of a rope-yarn, to figuring out the centre of stability, all 
most profusely and beautifully illustrated. I had studied 
my book diligendy, and learned a lot of things that were 
pure Greek to the Swedish sailors in the forecastle, so that 
I soon began to look upon myself as a mighty well posted 
mariner. 

Captain Nelson had found that owing to his excessive 
boat service our new yawl was already showing signs of 
wear, her stem especially was getting rounded off, from 
coming frequently in contact with all kinds of docks and 
wharves and ships' sides ; so during the fine weather, on the 
passage home, he himself set to work to make a •'' pudding " 
for her sore nose, and he had me to pass the ball for him. 

" Do you know what we are going to make, boy? " said 
he. 

" No, sir," said I. 

" A pudd'n for the boat's nose ; do you know what a 
pudd'n is, hey?" 

"Yes, sir, I know what a pudd'n is." 

"Oh, you do, hey? and where did you find out so 
much?" 



TWO GLASSES OF WINE 33 

" Oh, that's nothing," said I. " I guess I know lots of 
things that nobody else in this schooner knows." 

"The h you do !" said he. "Say, young man," he 

remarked, " I guess you've about outgrown this schooner ; 
when we get to New York, the best thing you can do will be 
to look for a bigger ship." 

I agreed with him there ; and so on reaching New 
York I quit my first vessel and resolved to go no more 
a-schoonering. 

Before long I discovered a Boston ship, the Tanjore, lay- 
ing on for Melbourne, near the foot of Wall Street. She 
was chartered in the Cameron line, which at that time did 
a large business with Australia. The Tanjore was a thou- 
sand-ton medium clipper, with a figure head representing a 
Hindoo clad in magnificent robes of white and gold, which 
caught my eyes and no doubt had an influence in deciding 
me in her favour. For several days I sauntered round the 
dock, looking at her and becoming more and more enthu- 
siastic over both the ship and the voyage. She developed 
new beauties daily as I surveyed her from different points 
and exhausted my slim stock of nautical knowledge in 
criticising her to myself. Finally I managed to screw up 
my courage enough to climb the long gangway, and in 
answer to the ship-keeper's demands stated that I wished 
to see the captain. I was told to wait, that he was at 
breakfast ; and during the half-hour that I waited you may 
be sure that I kept my eyes busy, although I stood still in 
one place, not daring to move, for fear the old ship-keeper 
would object, or the captain might escape ashore without 
my seeing him. The more I saw, the more anxious I was 
to go to sea in her, for she was really a fine ship ; and 
although her decks presented the usually untidy and dis- 
orderly scene of a vessel taking in cargo, still it was easy 
to see that she had that clean, tidy, shipshape appearance 



34 ON MANY SEAS 

which pertains to, and is, one of the great charms of all 
American deep-water ships. 

I found, to my great satisfaction, that I was able to 
recognize many things from the descriptions which steward 
Stacy had given on board the schooner when spinning his 
whahng yarns. Presently I saw a rather short and stout 
gentleman emerge from the cabin, all dressed up in shore 
" togs " and wearing a plug hat. I knew of course that this 
was the captain, and I looked him over carefully while he 
was talking with the old ship-keeper, who had seen him as 
quickly as I did, and went to him at once to receive what- 
ever orders he might wish to give before going ashore. 

I observed that Captain Hurlburt was a man of ruddy 
complexion, with a luxuriant growth of iron-gray hair and 
beard, a handsome man, and also apparently a pleasant 
one ; for I noticed several times during his short talk with 
the ship-keeper that he gave a quiet but hearty and genial 
laugh. Finally the ship-keeper looked round, and beckon- 
ing to me, I stepped forward, and he introduced me with 
the remark, ''A young man to see you. Captain," and went 
aft about his business. I made my errand known, and 
Captain Hurlburt said, while his face was wreathed in good- 
humoured smiles and his eyes twinkled, " So you want to go 
to sea, do ye? " " Yes, sir." " Ever been to sea before? " 
" Yes." I told him I had made a couple of coasting 
voyages in a schooner. 

" Well, why didn't you stay in the schooner? Don't you 
know that schooners are easier handled than a ship like this ? 
Do you think you could furl that main royal in a heavy 
squall in the night and the rain coming down in bucketsful? " 

I glanced aloft at the royal yard, which it seemed to me 
was several times higher than the schooner's crosstrees, 
which was the greatest altitude to which I had ever yet 
climbed, but I answered stoutly that I guessed so. 



TWO GLASSES OF WINE 35 

"You guess so, hey? Well, yes, I guess you can too. 
Well now, I'll tell you what I'll do. You ain't running 
away, are you?" This with a quick, sharp glance at me, 
which would certainly have disconcerted me had I been 
guilty ; which, however, I assured him I was not. " Well, if 
you want to go to sea with me, you can come aboard as soon 
as you like and help the ship-keeper. You can put your 
dunnage in the forecastle ; the steward will give you some- 
thing to eat, and I will pay you five dollars per month. Is 
that satisfactory? " 

Satisfactory ! If he had offered five dollars for a year 
instead of for a month, I would have accepted, so elated 
was I at becoming one of the crew of so fine a ship and 
bound away on such a long voyage. 



CHAPTER IV 

A Set-to WITH Jimmy. — Routine at Sea. — My Shipmates. 
— The Sailor's Right to Growl. 

I COULD hardly contain myself until I could get back to 
my father and tell him of my good luck. As my sea-chest 
was in the shop, I wanted to get a cart and take it aboard 
right away ; but father prevailed upon me to wait until 
morning at least. So in the morning I went aboard, bag 
and baggage, and found the ship-keeper expecting me. He 
showed me where to put my dunnage, and then set me at 
the same job that I first got on board the schooner, — clean- 
ing brass. 

I had not very much to do for the next two weeks except 
to help the ship-keeper keep things tidy about the decks, 
and sometimes I would help the steward a little. One day 
a boy about my age came aboard and introduced himself 
to me as Jimmy Collins from Buffalo. Jimmy said the cap- 
tain had hired him, and he was going to be my shipmate. I 
noticed that he never reported himself to the captain, but, 
on the contrary, kept out of his way. But Jimmy was not a 
boy to be questioned very much ; he had been to sea on the 
Lakes, and affected an air of superiority over all salt-water 
ships and sailors, myself, of course, most emphatically 
included. Jimmy was a boy " with a past," something of 
a vagrant, and a really tough customer. One day he said 
something a little more offensive than usual, and as his 

36 



I SHIP ON THE TANJORE 37 

manner had been getting more and more overbearing of 
late, I had about reached the point where patience ceases 
to be a virtue. So the natural result was that Jimmy and 
I locked horns just as the captain came out of the cabin. 
He saw the fracas and came forward and pulled us apart ; 
and I will remark right here that in the year and a half that 
I remained in the ship that was the only time I ever saw him 
forward of the mainmast. Looking at Jimmy in evident 
astonishment, he asked where he came from. " Buffalo," 
said Jimmy ; "an' I'm goin' in dis ship." " I want to know 
if ye are," said the captain ; " who shipped you? " " I was 
jest agoin' aft to see de ole man when dis son of a gun 
jumped on me," said Jimmy. " Well," said Captain Hurl- 
burt, " you see the ' ole man ' right here now, and I don't 
want you ; you don't suit me." " Is dat so? " said Jimmy. 
" Well, if you are de ole man, dat settles it. I tought you 
was de cook's mate. I don't want to go wid you ; you don't 
suit me neider." And away Jimmy swaggered ashore, shout- 
ing out, as a parting shot to " de ole man," that on the 
Lakes where he came from he had often seen the cooks feed 
better men to the ship's pigs. Shortly after this the mate, 
Mr. Davis, and the second mate, Mr. OHver, came aboard. 
They were both Americans. Fine, gentlemanly young men, 
and thorough seamen, too. 

One day as I was sweeping down the gang-plank, a boy 
about my age, who was hanging round the dock, asked me 
all the particulars about how I got my job, and if I thought 
the captain would hire another boy. He was a fine, bright, 
clean-looking, black-eyed boy, with an accent that told me 
at once that he was a New York boy of Irish descent. I 
took to him right away, and we became confidential, and 
John — his name was John Riley — told me that his parents 
being both dead, he had been brought up by his uncle ; and 
had got into a "girl" scrape, and wanted to get out of the 



38 ON MANY SEAS 

country. I advised him to come aboard and see the mate, 
which he finally did, with the result that he was shipped. 
So John and I became shipmates and, in spite of an occa- 
sional scrap, firm fi"iends for years. 

Shortly after this father came aboard, and I introduced 
him to Mr. Davis, the mate, and heard that gentleman spin 
him a wonderful yarn about how on his first voyage to sea, 
on the way to Manilla, he was thrown by a heavy lee roll 
from the weather main topgallant yard clean over the stay 
and landed on the lee-yard arm. 

The ship being now loaded, the crew came aboard, con- 
sisting of eight " able " and four " ordinary " seamen ; cook 
and carpenter. We carried neither boatswain nor sail- 
maker, but we had two gentlemen passengers and the cap- 
tain's wife. She had sailed with him constantly for fourteen 
years. We took 'a tug, of course, to tow us to sea, and the 
wind was fair. We had nearly all sail set before the tug got 
us outside the Hook, and as the breeze freshened, the tug 
could not keep the tow-line taut, so the pilot hailed the cap- 
tain and told him to slack back. We pulled in our tow-line 
and let him go before we were clear of quarantine, and went 
to sea under our own sail. Once outside the Hook, we set 
the recall signal for the pilot-boat, and our pilot left us, 
taking such letters as we wished to have mailed. Little did 
I think it would be ten long years before I should look a 
New York pilot in the face again. 

I have frequently heard passengers remark the apparent 
confusion on the deck of a sailing-vessel when getting under 
way and making sail. I dare say that to a person not un- 
derstanding the business, the decks seem covered with an 
inextricable tangle, whereas the facts of the case are just the 
reverse. At no time during this very important and intensely 
busy time of getting under way is there the least confusion, 
or occasion for any. On the contrary, the work is of such 



I SHIP ON THE TANJORE 39 

a routine nature that an experienced crew can anticipate 
every order. Do you think that with the decks littered as 
they are, witli ropes fore and aft, men taking wliole coils 
of braces, clue-lines, buntlines, leech-lines, reef tackles, etc., 
from their pins and throwing them on deck, then hauling in 
fathoms and fathoms of sheets and halyards, all of which 
also remain on deck for the time, to be trampled over by 
hurrying feet — do you think, I say, that if there was any 
confusion here, those ropes would not become a tangled 
and useless mass ? 

If you keep watch, you will find that not a rope of all 
those which seem to be so carelessly mixed up ever gets 
foul, and when the sails are on her and trimmed, it is 
but a few minutes' work for the sailors to clear the decks, 
and have each rope coiled on its own pin again. Every rope 
has its own pin, and is never belayed to or coiled on any 
other. Consequently, in the darkest night, when an order 
comes from the quarter-deck, there is not the slightest de- 
lay, for the men can put their hands on the right ropes as 
if by instinct. 

Fortunately our crew all came aboard sober, so that there 
was no fighting to be done ; and besides, they were able to 
get through their work better and sooner than is usually the 
case, so that all hands were called aft at four bells (six 
o'clock) to chalk watches, as it is called. We formed a 
line across the deck, and the second mate, representing the 
captain, whose watch he keeps, had first choice, and se- 
lected one man, who then stepped over the starboard side, 
the captain's being the starboard watch. If you go aboard of 
all the ships in port to-day, you will find in every instance, 
no matter what the nationality may be, that the captain's 
stateroom is on the starboard side of the cabin, although he 
keeps no watch, and of course the mate's and second mate's 
are on their respective sides too. Then the mate chose a 



40 ON MANY SEAS 

man, who went to the port side, and so on until the whole 
crew were divided into two watches. 

I fell to the second mate's watch, and as it is a saying on 
shipboard that the captain takes her out and the mate brings 
her home, the second mate's watch has the first " eight hours 
out " on the outward passage, and the mate's watch the same 
when homeward bound. By " eight hours out " is meant hav- 
ing the first and also the morning watch on deck. The first 
watch is ft"om eight p.m. to twelve, and the morning watch is 
from four a.m. to eight. As this only gives that half of the 
crew four hours' sleep during the night, it is considered more 
desirable than the other side, which is called " eight hours in," 
they only having to be on deck during the middle watch. 
But as this state of affairs is reversed every day by means 
of the dog-watches, there is nothing to kick about. While 
on this subject of watches, I may say that a "farmer" on 
shipboard is a man who has neither a wheel nor a lookout 
to take during a given night watch, so that, the weather per- 
mitting and the officer of the watch relaxing his vigilance 
sufficiently, he may hope to get quite a good bit of sleep in 
his watch on deck ; and as sleep is about the only thing 
there is for a sailor at sea to get in the way of recreation, he 
prizes it accordingly and gets all he can. It is technically 
called " caulking," and a man will brag of having " caulked " 
the whole four hours of his watch on deck with as much 
pleasure as though he had received notice of a rise 'in his 
wages. And how much sailors can sleep, and how much 
they can eat ! 

The lookouts on the forecastle at night are governed by 
the tricks at the wheel the previous day ; for instance, if I 
had the wheel from six to eight this morning, when it comes 
seven o'clock in the evening and is getting dark and the 
second mate comes part way forward and sings out, " Hand 
on the lookout there," I answer at once, "Ay, ay, sir," 



I SHIP ON THE TANJORE 4 1 

and go on the lookout. For the hours correspond with 
those which I had at the wheel this morning ; and so it 
goes all night. 

The trick at the wheel from four to five a.m. is called the 
" gravy eye " because of its notorious tediousness. At four 
o'clock in the morning, after having had but four hours' 
sleep during the night, — for somehow the sleep you get 
during the daytime doesn't seem to count, — it is very dis- 
agreeable to get up and go on deck even in fine weather, 
and what shall we say of it in bad? Perhaps the weather 
has been such for days or even weeks that every stitch of 
clothes you have got, even to your oilskins and sea-boots, 
are sopping wet, and you must put them on again and go to 
the wheel on an empty stomach, for you have already stood 
one four hours' watch since supper and slept one. For the 
rest of the watch, you can manage, if the weather is not too 
bad, to get into sheltered corners and doze a little, and so 
kill time until coffee is ready at 5.30 o'clock, when you get 
about a pint of what Jack frequently alludes to as " good 
water ruined." And it is looking forward to this hot 
drink, with a bite of hardtack, that makes the " gravy eye " 
seem so awfully long ; for of course the helmsman is longing 
for his pot of hot coffee, which he doesn't get until the man 
who had the wheel previous to him has had his and comes 
to relieve him. After three bells, he knows they are having 
their coffee forward, and sees the cook hand the officer of 
the watch his in a cup ; and from that time on he keeps a 
close watch on the gangway, each minute seeming an hour, 
and when the relief comes at last there's a growl about taking 
so long to drink a drop of coffee, " Don't you s'pose any- 
body else wants any?" and a retort, "Ah, go on and get 
your coffee, and get back here so I can have a smoke before 
' turn-to time.' " 

I don't know how the name " gravy eye " originated, but 



42 ON MANY SEAS 

I do know that the " gravy eye " wheel by any other name 
would be equally disagreeable. 

The watch being set, we now had a chance to scrape 
acquaintance with one another. Our crew were of the 
ordinary run — Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, and besides 
myself one American — Old Ned — and he might about as 
well have been christened Old Nick, for he was a genuine 
old " shellback," who I believe would have growled if he 
had been invited by a fairy to wish for whatever he wanted. 
I remember once when we were scmbbing the paintwork 
in the rain — this work is done in the rain for the alleged 
reason that the dirt becomes softened, but it is the opinion 
of sailors that it is done to utilize time which would other- 
wise be wasted — that Ned, who was well aft, was growling 
as usual, when Captain Hurlburt, noticing him, stopped in 
his walk at the break of the quarter-deck and asked him 
what was the matter. Ned rambled off a whole lot of un- 
important stuff, and among other things said he had not had 
a decent meal of victuals since he came aboard of the 
"d — — hooker." 

At this the captain flared up and told him he had never 
had better grub in his life at sea than he got there ; but 
Ned said he had been where he had chickens and turkeys 
at almost every meal. 

" Where was that? " asked the captain. 

" On the coast of China, sir," said Ned. 

" Yes, I know," said the old man ; " I have traded on 
the China coast, and that is so, but I'll bet you growled 
then." 

" Well, of course," said Ned ; " who do you suppose 
wants to live on such swill as that? I want good beef to 
eat and then I can work." 

I mention this incident merely to illustrate the most 
prominent feature of a sailor's character. The right to 



I SHIP ON THE TANJORE 43 

growl is tacitly admitted ; in fact, one of the axioms of 
marine life is, " Growl ye may, but go ye must." 

We caught a fine northwest breeze right from the wharf in 
New York, which carried us almost to the " trades." One 
morning, about ten days out, we came on deck to find a 
" Paddy's Hurricane " — a calm — and a bark of about three 
hundred and fifty tons, apparently homeward bound, within 
half a mile of us. We had already signalled and found her 
to be the bark Pactolus, of Boston, homeward bound from 
the west coast of Africa. As there was no appearance of 
any wind, our two passengers prevailed on Captain Hurlburt 
to send a boat with letters to the bark ; so we lowered away 
one of the small boats that lay on the gallows forward of the 
quarter-deck, and Mr. Oliver took two men and myself with 
him. 

Arrived alongside, I shinned up the main chains and was 
on board before Mr. Oliver himself, who took the more dig- 
nified way of waiting for a side ladder. How little the 
bark looked, and how shabby after coming from our nice, 
clean, roomy deck. The mate apologized to Mr. Oliver for 
the looks of his vessel ; said she would look worse going into 
Boston than she did coming out, although he had had lots of 
time to clean up ; " but," said he, " with such a crew as 
we've got we'll be lucky to get home at all ; they've been 
aboard six months now and don't know as much as they did 
on the start." " Here," said he, " I'll show you what kind 
of sailors they are after six months' practice ; see that snatch- 
block laying there on the main hatch ? Well, I'll bet a new 
hat there ain't one of 'em knows what it is." There were 
four or five of the crew standing talking with me at the 
weather rail, just abreast of the main hatch. 

" Bring me that snatch-block off the main hatch, one of 
you," said the mate, in an ordinary tone of voice. Every 
man jack of them made a break for the hatch, fell over it 



44 ON MANY SEAS 

and the block, and so around the lee side of the deck-house 
and away forward out of sight. 

We all laughed, and the mate asked Mr. Oliver what he 
thought of them. 

" I wish you joy of them," said he. 

"They remind me of a Cape Cod schooner we sighted 
once when we were homeward bound from Bombay. She 
was about fifty miles off-shore, and though the weather was 
fine and she had a fair wind her gaff topsails were both 
furled, and as we passed close to windward of her we saw 
apparently all hands aft on the poop drinking coffee and 
eating doughnuts. Our captain hailed, and asked if there 
w^as anything the matter. 

" ' Yes,' said the Cape Codder ; ' there's a durned sight 
the matter. I got a crew of as good fellers as ever yew 
seen ; but dum 'em, ther' hain't no climbers among 'em. 
I'll trade ye two good pullers for one chmber. Cap.'" 

" Ah, but," said the mate, " these fellers of mine are no 
good at all. Even if they were sound and could v/ork, I 

might get along somehow ; but d 'em, they're deserters 

from the army, and have all been wounded." So, a light 
cat's-paw on the water warning us of a possible breeze, we 
took our departure, the mate caUing after us, good-naturedly, 
to know if we could spare him a couple of climbers. 

Arrived on board, we found the rest of the watch trimming 
the yards to the little breath of air that was fanning over 
the "water, so we hurried up and got the boat in, and lashed 
in her place again; and then, as the wind was well abeam, 
we rigged out the topmast stunsail booms, and gave her the 
light kites ; Old Ned prophesying all the while that " he'd 
git the sticks blowed out of him, if he went to foolin' with 
stuns'ls before he struck the ' trades.' " 

I heard Mr. Oliver teUing the captain about the bark's 
crew ; and he laughed, and said he had a mind to enter her 



I SHIP ON THE TANJORE 45 

in the official Log in the same manner that Paddy related, 
in his letter to his brother, the meeting of a vessel at sea, — 
" And shure, the firrst land we saw was a big black brig 
belongin' to Donegal." 

The next day we struck into the ''trades," for sure. The 
northeast " trade " wind is a wind which blows steadily, 
year in and year out, and always has, and presumably always 
will do so, from some point ranging from east by north to 
northeast by east. I have never known it go either farther 
east or farther north than those two points. It extends 
from sometimes 21° or 22° north latitude to within three 
or four degrees of the equator. I have heard of instances 
where it was carried even into south latitude, but have never 
seen it. 

If there is perfect weather on -this round earth, if there 
is weather and climate that make simple existence a luxury, 
that weather is in the northeast " trades." The sky is of that 
bright and beautiful blue seen on a fine October day ashore, 
mottled with white, fleecy clouds that chase one another 
merrily along ; and you know that there isn't a squall or 
a drop of rain or any other unpleasantness that can touch 
you now. The sea, too, although this breeze has been blow- 
ing since atmospheric air was created, is like the surface 
of an inland lake ; even though, as sometimes happens, the 
"trades" are strong enough so that you dare not show a 
topgallant stunsail ; still the sea keeps within bounds, and day 
and night you sail along, your ship as steady as a church, 
and you don't have to touch a rope-yarn, except to take an 
occasional pull at the weather braces to keep them taut, 
and go the regular rounds every evening in the last dog- 
watch (six to eight) with the tail block, and " sweat-up " 
sheets and halyards, so that every rag shall set like a board 
and get the benefit of the most glorious wind that ever blew 
out of the heavens. 



46 ON MANY SEAS 

And the weather ! In the daytime, even at noon, the 
bright sunshine is not in the least oppressive. There is not 
the slightest resemblance to what you would call heat, and 
all night long you can lie out on the open deck and sleep 
in perfect comfort without a thing over you. 

It seems almost wicked to sleep away such magnificent 
weather ; but Jack is intensely practical, and knows that 
it is hurrying him towards tlie Horn or the Cape (Good 
Hope), where it is an open question how much sleep he 
will get ; so, to use a popular phrase, he bottles it up in the 
" trades " while he can. That is, he sleeps as much as he 
may, day and night. 



CHAPTER V 

Crossing the Line. — Neptune meets his Match. — A Mill 
WITH MY Friend Riley. 

And now as the good ship Tanjore was gliding along 
with every inch of canvas set that would draw, even to a 
" Jemmy Green " under the bow, the old " barnacle backs " 
in the forecastle were hatching up a scheme to initiate such 
of us as had not previously crossed the equator, including, 
besides myself and Riley, two of the ordinary seamen and 
the two passengers. As Old Ned was to personate Neptune, 
he got the mate to secure the captain's consent, and so 
having "run the trades down" and dawdled through the 
"doldrums," we at last, by taking advantage of every little 
five minutes' squall, managed to fan along down to the 
"line," and the afternoon watch of the day that we crossed 
was devoted to the ceremony of the presentation to Old 
Neptune. The weather was of course hot, and it had 
rained so much that everybody was accustomed to being wet 
through one minute and kiln- dried the next. 

The big " wash-deck " tub was filled with water and covered 
over and disguised with canvas to represent a throne for Old 
Nep and at the same time provide for a barber's chair. The 
scheme was to seat the victim in the chair facing His 
Majesty ; he was then to be questioned as to his name, age, 
occupation, etc., and when he opened his mouth to answer, 
the barber would dab his brush, made of the end of an. old 

47 



48 ON MANY SEAS 

lanyard and dipped in lather, in liis mouth ; or if after one 
dose he refused to open his mouth again he would jab him 
in the eye. The lather was a delicious compound made of 
Stockholm coal tar, slush, etc. If the patient showed signs 
of debility after this, he would be given a reviving smell from 
a bottle whose cork was stuck full of needles. Then to 
make sure of his recovery, he would be dumped over back- 
wards into the tub, where two " bears " would see that his 
case was not slighted. 

Old Ned, as I have said, was to act as Neptune. He had 
a huge manilla swab upside down on his head to represent a 
blond wig, which flowed down all over his body and trailed 
behind him on deck. He also had a beard and moustache 
of the same material ; his own blanket wound about his 
regal form completed his costume, and, armed with the 
ship's grains for a trident, he made a highly creditable sea- 
king. The barber likewise was grotesquely dressed up with 
such gear as the seaman's chests and the boatswain's locker 
afforded, and armed with his badge of office, — an immense 
barrel-hoop razor; while following him came the surgeon 
carrying the lather cup and smelhng bottle. The rear of 
the procession was brought up by the two " bears " and 
other fantastic shapes. At two o'clock we had a hail on the 
weather bow. 

" Ship ahoy ! " 

" Hello," answered the mate. 

"What ship is that?" 

" Tanjore of Boston." 

"Where from, pray?" 

" New York." 

"Where bound, pray?" 

" Melbourne, Australia." 

" Is my old friend Captain Hurlburt in command ? " 

"Yes, sir." 



NEPTUNE MEETS HIS MATCH 49 

" Have you any greenhorns who have not yet paid tribute 
to me on board? " 
■ " Yes, sir ; there are a few, I beheve." 

"Well, I'll come aboard and collect my dues." 

And then Old Ned and his crew came piling in over the 
bow, and marched aft. 

By this time of course everybody was on deck and knew 
what was going on. Neptune seated himself on his throne 
with the hidden tub in front of him, and ordered the mate 
to produce his greenhorns that they might be initiated into 
the mysteries of the sea according to the ancient and honour- 
able custom. Mr. Davis then led up Mr. Kennedy, the 
youngest passenger, for a starter. Mr. Kennedy was a 
bright, wiry, red-headed young man, and he hadn't had any 
fun since we left New York, and I don't know how long 
before, so he was good and frisky ; and as he stepped on the 
treacherous trap- door over the tub of water, he looked as fit 
as a fiddler. 

Neptune asked him his name, and he whirled round in 
time to catch the barber with uphfted brush ready to punctu- 
ate his answer. As quick as hghtning his left shot out 
straight from the shoulder and down went the barber, taking 
the surgeon with him, and they were both copiously lathered 
with their own soap. Wheeling again, he grabbed Nep- 
tune by his flowing locks, and yanked him off his impro- 
vised throne (an empty tar barrel set on end) with such 
force that his trident flew from his grasp and blackened the 
eye of the chief bear, while he himself was precipitated 
through the trap and jnto the tub, Kennedy himself barely 
escaping the same fate. 

The rest of us greenhorns, including the fat passenger, 
made the hollow of the mainsail ring with derisive yells 
as the visiting delegation broke up in disorder and fled 
forward for safety. Old Ned crawled out of the tub splut- 



50 ON MANY SEAS 

tering and cursing, and but for the interference of the mate 
Kennedy would have given him a blamed good licking. 

For a long time after, shaving greenhorns on the line 
was a sore subject with Old Ned, and Kennedy was the 
ship's hero. 

Riley being in the mate's watch and I in the second 
mate's, there was between us considerable rivalry, not al- 
ways good-natured, which the mates took good care to keep 
alive, and I have no doubt it afforded them lots of fun. 
The royals are the boys' sails ; no men ordinarily go near 
them, and the mates used to brag to each other in our hear- 
ing about how quickly their respective boys had furled the 
royals ; so when I came down from aloft I would ask Mr. 
Oliver how long I had been, and he would generally tell 
me that I had beaten Riley's time by a few minutes, and 
it seems the mate would tell Riley the same, so when 
we would get to bragging we would each have facts and 
figures to prove that each of us was the smartest. One 
night as we were swinging along with a good stiff breeze, 
and a little squally, Riley had furled the fore and mizzen 
royals in the first watch, and Mr. Oliver told me he had 
broken the record by a minute or so ; but, said he, " I guess 
you'll have a chance at the main, Fred, before eight bells, 
and if you do I'll keep time for you, and be sure you beat 
him. Don't let an Irishman get away with you." And 
sure enough before five bells the breeze had stiffened up 
so that we had to haul down the flying jib, and clew up 
the main Toyal. As soon as I heard Mr. Oliver sing out 
"Let go the main royal halyards," I jumped into the weather 
rigging, and up I went like a lamplighter, bound to break 
Riley's record, or "bust." I was on the yard before they 
got the sail clewed up, and tussling with the weather yard- 
arm for dear life. 

I had barely got out on the yard, when down came a 



NEPTUNE MEETS HIS MATCH 5 1 

squall of wind and rain that seemed as if it might blow 
the old ship out of water. The weather bunthne parted 
and the sail bellied out between me and the mast like an 
immense balloon. The canvas was so taut with the pressure 
of the wind that I could no more get hold of it than if 
it had been the smooth side of an iron ship. In fact, I 
had a pretty big contract to keep my hold on the yard, 
and as I positively could not do anything towards furling 
the sail I simply hung on hke a good fellow, waiting for 
a lull so that I might smother the huge canvas globe that 
stood straight up over my head. And it seemed as if I 
stayed there an age, expecting every second that the sail, 
yard, mast, myself, and all would part company with the 
old Tanjore and go whirling through space, to drop at 
last far away to leeward, and never be heard of again. I 
hadn't the least idea what was going on below, for I could 
neither see nor hear ; but it seems that Mr. Oliver distrusted 
the appearance of the weather, so that as soon as the royal 
was clewed up he ordered hands to stand by fore and 
mizzen topgallant halyards, and when the squall struck her, 
he let them fly, and clewed them up also. The captain, 
hearing the racket, came on deck, and after the hands 
went aloft to furl the sails he looked up at the main and 
asked Mr. Oliver who was on the royal yard. 

"You'd better haul up the weather buntline," says the 
old man when he learned that I was there alone ; " how 
do you suppose the boy can stow that sail the way it is ? " 

So he came down on the main deck and held turn while 
Mr. Oliver swayed up the buntline, and at the first swig that 
he gave it, of course it came down by the run, and Mr. Oliver 
went on his back, and so across the deck into the lee 
scuppers, in which, as they were all afloat, he got a good 
sousing. 

Then they knew that the buntline had parted, and as the 



52 ON MANY SEAS 

two men had now arrived on deck from the mizzen topgal- 
lant yard they sent them up to help me, and the first that I 
knew as I was hanging on out there by my teeth and eye- 
brows, I felt somebody on the foot-rope, and a man came 
fighting his way out to me. Of course, with lots of help, 
we soon furled the sail and went down. 

Time, forty minutes. A record breaker indeed ! but of 
course it wasn't my fault. 

Riley, of course, heard of it, and when I came on deck 
at eight bells he had lots to say about it, pretending, of 
course, to believe that it was due to my incapacity that the 
job had taken so long to do and had required so much help. 
He finally alluded to me as "Mick." I told him he was 
the " Mick," not I. He said it was true he was an Irish 
" Mick," but that I was a down-east " Mick," which was a 
blamed sight worse, " and daren't take it up." But he was 
mistaken. I did dare to take it up, and Riley and I had 
quite an interesting time of it, to the great dehght of both 
watches, mates, and all, until the old man appearing at the 
cabin door the "mill" was declared off, to the great relief 
of both of us. I am sure neither had much hopes of vic- 
tory, so we were both declared to be "good ones," and the 
" scrap " was called a draw, and from that time forward 
John Riley and I never again raised our hands to one an- 
other, but stood by each other through thick and thin as 
you will see, and I have never had a shipmate from that day 
to this who was his equal. 

We had now passed the southeast " trades," and were 
heading away to the eastward for the passage round the 
Cape, with a slashing southwesterly wind. Although we 
were unable to carry the royals and flying jib, the old man 
hung out a fore topmast stunsail, and left orders not to 
take it in, but, as often as it blew away, to patch it up and 
hang it out again, and so we had pretty nearly a steady job 



NEPTUNE MEETS HIS MATCH 53 

with it. For if the sail held on, the tack would part, and 
then of course the sail would slat to pieces and wind round 
the jib-stay, and sometimes it would take us an. hour or 
more to get the fragments in on deck, and repair it, and 
then out she went again. I suppose the left-handed bless- 
ings that old topmast stunsail got on our run round the Cape 
would have sunk a Dutch galUot. 

Well, as we increased our latitude, the winds grew stronger 
and the weather got stormy, until finally we got into what 
seemed permanently bad weather ; but, the wind being 
fair, Captain Hurlburt hung on to his canvas and drove the 
old girl through it in great shape. For more than six weeks 
we never saw our decks dry, and we had to scrub them to 
keep the slime of the salt water from growing into moss. 
Although the weather was not so very cold, still it was 
dreary and dismal enough ; for it rained most of the time. 
And when the old man got a "sight" at the sun, it was 
usually any time rather than eight bells, the hour when the 
ship's position is usually made. 



CHAPTER VI 

Melbourne. — Hong Kong. — A Pirate. — Wounded in 
Action. 

You are to understand, of course, that during all this time 
we were " making easting," and so one morning at daylight 
the Port Philip Heads were in sight through the rain and 
mist, and a welcome sight it was ; for we had been at sea a 
long time, and with the exception of a glimpse we got of the 
South American coast, this was the only land we had seen 
since leaving the Highlands of Navesink astern, and for the 
last six or eight weeks we had been continually wet. We 
soon got a pilot, and then what a questioning there was ! 
For the captain and his wife and both mates being genuine 
down-east Yankees, they were expert questioners, and the 
pilot himself, after passing through all their hands, must 
have been surprised to find that he knew so much. 

Melbourne is located on a small stream called the Yarra, 
which empties into Hobson's Bay, an arm of the sea reach- 
ing well up into the land. Ships cannot go up to Melbourne, 
so they he at the wharves in Sandridge. We got a berth at 
once and hauled in, discharged our cargo, and as the wool 
freights were not satisfactory to Captain Hurlburt, he de- 
cided to go to Hong Kong and seek a cargo ; so we shipped 
a lot of ballast, took a wealthy Chinaman as a passenger, 
and after having put in a most prosaic and uneventful 
month in Sandridge, we sailed away for China. At last 

54 



IN CHINESE WATERS 55 

there was some prospect of my seeing China. As we 
approached the coast, Captain Hurlburt, who was an old 
China trader, kept a lookout aloft all day ; and in the last 
dog-watch we used to play at single sticks, as the practice 
of cutlass drill is called. You don't do it with real cutlasses, 
but with sticks, broomsticks in our case ; for the old man 
knew that there were opium smugglers in those seas who 
would not throw away a good chance to do a little in the 
way of piracy. 

At dawn of the last morning at sea, the lookout quietly 
hailed the deck and reported a junk's sail visible above the 
fog, which lay in an impenetrable blanket on the surface of 
the ocean about as high as the main-yard. Instantly all 
was bustle on board. The watch was called, not with the 
usual racket and hullabaloo, but each man was quietly 
awakened with a shake and told of the junk's appearance, 
and they tumbled up mighty lively, too. 

The old man went aloft himself and took a look, and 
when he came down again he told Mr. Davis to get the two 
quarter-boats into the water as quietly as possible, and for 
the mates to take charge of them, each with a thoroughly 
armed crew from his own watch, while he would lay the ship 
alongside the junk, trusting to the fog and suddenness of 
our appearance to surprise them into a panic. Mr. Oliver 
told me to get into his boat and bear her off from the ship's 
side as she was lowered, and unhook the tackles ; for it was 
almost a calm and the sea was quite smooth, which enabled 
us to lower the boats equally well from both sides. I 
jumped in and did as ordered. After making fast the end 
of the main topsail brace which was thrown me from the 
deck, I unhooked first the after and then the forward 
tackle, and sat in the bow bearing off. Pretty soon down 
came a small box, fast to a line. This was the boat's com- 
pass, for, being foggy, we would be obliged to steer by 



56 ON MANY SEAS 

compass ; and, anyway, a boat is never allowed to leave a 
well regulated ship, no matter how fine the weather, or how 
short the trip, without bread, water, and compass ; for at 
sea you never know what contingencies naay arise, nor how 
suddenly. Next down came a bunch of cutlasses, ground 
and oilstoned to a razor edge ; then the crew, six of them, 
and the second mate, each with two Colt's revolvers strapped 
about him. They took their places quietly, and each pro- 
ceeded to muffle his oar with something he had brought 
along for the purpose ; for we had rehearsed this act also, 
and each man knew just what to do and how to do it. 
Then we waited. 

By and bye the captain stuck his head over the rail and 
asked, "Are you ready?" "Yes, sir," said Mr. Oliver. 
" Very well ; steer northeast by east, half east, and you'll come 
up under her weather quarter. Keep out of sight until you 
hear Mr. Davis's revolver, and then board with a rush, but 
on the dead quiet ; for he will be on the lee bow and his 
firing will naturally attract their attention that way, and give 
you a chance to get aboard and get control of the helm, and 
so assist me in bringing the two vessels alongside each 
other. Now go." 

" Ay, ay, sir." 

" Boy, pull the boat up to the chains and get out," said he. 

" All right, sir," said I, but instead I let go the end of 
the brace and she dropped rapidly astern. Mr. Oliver 
glared at me, muttered something between his teeth, and 
finally ordered me to come aft in the stern-sheets, and he 
gave me one of the big sixshooters and told me that I was 
in the tightest box that I had ever been in yet, and that I 
could thank my stars if ever I got back to the old Tanjore 
alive. 

I began to think that after all perhaps I hadn't done such 
an awfully smart trick in letting go the end of that topsail 



IN CHINESE WATERS 5/ 

brace ; but there was no more time to talk, and not much to 
think, for just then the junk loomed up in the fog, appar- 
ently as big as a mountain, and we were heading just exactly 
as we wanted to, — right for the lowest part of her waist. 

We stopped rowing immediately, for the boat had way 
enough on her to gain a little on the junk in the light wind 
that was blowing. The men had hardly raised their oars 
clear of the water when, crack ! we heard the faint report 
of the mate's revolver, followed by three hearty cheers and 
the sound of oars in the rowlocks, as Mr. Davis led the 
attack on the lee bow. Without waiting for an order, Old 
Ned, who pulled stroke-oar in our boat, dipped his oar 
noiselessly in the water, followed by the others, and three or 
four stout strokes sent her alongside. I jumped to the bow 
to fend off, and as she glided smoothly alongside I grabbed 
the painter and, standing upon the gunwale, I could just 
reach what you might call the junk's rail, and grasping it 
with both hands was about to spring on board, when I 
looked into the eyes of a big, swarthy, ferocious-looking 
Malay who, with uplifted creese, was in the very act of 
parting my hair for good. I am not sure, but I think I 
yelled ; anyway, Mr. Oliver saw what was going on. 

The men had just shipped their oars and were preparing 
to board, when, as I mechanically dodged my head below 
the rail, in mortal terror, Mr. Oliver, with a lucky shot, 
drilled a hole clean through the head of my Malay, who 
dropped in a heap as dead as Pharaoh ; but the force with 
which he swung his creese brought it down on my left 
hand, with which I still clasped the rail, cutting off my fore- 
finger and the end of my thumb and nearly taking my 
middle finger off too. I dropped back into the boat, and 
Johnson, a German ordinary seaman, took the painter from 
me and with the rest boarded her. 

You are to understand that all this time pandemonium 



58 ON MANY SEAS 

reigned on the junk's lee bow, where Mr. Davis had met 
with a hot reception ; for his shot and the cheer of his crew 
having warned the Chinamen of his approach, they were 
there to receive him; but as his crew were armed with six- 
shooters, "John" soon found it advisable to keep his head 
below the rail, and contented himself with throwing, or 
rather pitching, such heavy articles as he could lay hands on 
into the boat, evidently in hopes of sinking her, which came 
near happening ; for a heavy poleaxe, which was hurled from 
behind the junk's rail, came flying through the air, and the 
spike or pole went through the bottom of the boat, making 
a hole which kept the crew working hard to keep her afloat. 
In the meantime our boat's crew had boarded without 
any further resistance than that afforded by the Malay who 
chopped my fingers off. Old Ned went to the tiller, chasing 
overboard the Chinaman who had charge of it, and, as he 
said, giving him a couple of leaden pellets by way of ballast 
as he went. The other five, led by Mr. OHver, charged, 
yelling, on the rear of the fellows who were trying to sink 
Mr. Davis's boat from behind their own bulwarks. The 
boys pumped about half a pound of lead apiece, out of their 
revolvers, into the crowd as they came forward on the run, 
and then drawing their cutlasses they went for them. This 
diversion gave Mr. Davis a chance to get round on the 
weather bow, and board. At almost the same instant the 
Tanjore ranged alongside. Captain Hurlburt and the few 
men he had kept to handle the ship yelling and firing 
revolvers. The poor Chinamen, seeing themselves appar- 
ently surrounded, and thinking probably that we were an 
English man-of-war, and having already lost eight killed, as 
the count afterwards showed, broke and fled, some below 
and some overboard, and of those who went overboard I 
saw several deliberately throw up their hands and go down, 
while some who tried to keep afloat became targets for our 



IN CHINESE WATERS 59 

fellows to practise on with their revolvers, until not a pigtail 
was left afloat. And those who took refuge below were 
brought up one at a time and ironed and sent aboard the 
Ta7ijo7'e; eleven as villanous-looking heathens as ever cut 
a throat. 

We tied them up about the decks, and on arriving in 
Hong Kong the next day handed them over to the British 
man-of-war, Bellerophon. They had a farcical trial, at which 
our captain and officers swore to I know not what ; and the 
day following at eight o'clock in the morning as the " blood 
and innards " of Old England went to the Bellerophon's 
peak, eleven Chinese smugglers, and more than half-sus- 
pected pirates, took a short flight heavenward, each at the 
end of a special gant-line which the boatswain had rove to 
the fore and main topsail and topgallant yard-arms. 

He told Mr. Davis afterwards he was sorry we had broken 
the set, for having only eleven he was one short for his fore- 
topgallant yard. 

It has never been quite clear in my mind why the China- 
men were hanged instead of ourselves ; for certainly, in that 
particular instance, if any one was guilty of piracy it was not 
John Chinaman. He was going along about his own busi- 
ness then at any rate, but English naval officers were not 
over particular, and I don't suppose ours were either, and 
so, as there was no doubt about the smugghng part of the 
charge, why they made sure of being on the right side by 
hanging them, anyway. 

The junk we had brought in, in charge of Old Ned and 
two ordinary seamen. She was condemned and sold, and 
a certain amount of the proceeds distributed as prize-money 
to the officers and crew, and that was the secret of their 
enthusiasm. Riley and I each received fifty dollars, and 
all the rest received much more than their wages for the 
whole voyage amounted to, for she was a rich prize. She 



6o ON MANY SEAS 

had a great quantity of opium on board, and thousands of 
Mexican silver dollars. I was the most seriously wounded 
of any of our crew, and got a "jawing " from the old man 
for going in the boat where I had no business and " getting 
my hand cut off." 

To be sure, it was not quite so bad as that, though 
pretty near it, and my left hand has been crippled all 
my life. Poor Riley ! I suppose he has never forgiven 
himself to this day for having been left on board that 
day when the most stirring event of the whole voyage took 
place. 

Being on the sick list with my lame hand, I was allowed 
lots of shore leave, and I enjoyed myself hugely ; for ever 
since I read of " Aladdin and his wonderful lamp," I had 
had a great curiosity to visit the strangest people on the 
face of the earth. 

I wandered through the streets of ancient Hong Kong, 
and stared, and stared, like the greeny that 1 was. I ad- 
mired their marvellously fine workmanship in some instances, 
and wondered at their clumsy appUances in others. We 
were, of course, besieged by peddlers and bumboatmen, 
a stock article of trade with them being samshaw, a kind of 
rum made, I believe, from rice. Needless to say, this found 
a ready sale among the men, so that, as they began to get 
drunk, Mr. Davis finally forbade the boats coming alongside. 
Still the men seemed to be well provided with samshaw ; 
and it was a long time before he found out how, but at last 
he "got onto it." There was an ingenious old Chinaman 
who had constructed a big pipe exactly like a tobacco pipe, 
out of bamboo, and he would watch his chance when the 
men were at their meals on the forecastle head, and, drop- 
ping under the bows, dicker with them for the stuff; and if 
trade was to his taste, he would pass up the end of his long 
pipe-stem to his customer, who, climbing over into the head. 



IN CHINESE WATERS 6 1 

would suck up the charge which the old fellow had poured 
into the bowl. 

Sometimes two or more men would be partners in the 
deal, when there was sure to be a row over the division of 
sucks ; all the others interested closely watching the 
Adam's apple of the lucky one who was, for the time 
being, coupled onto the pipe-stem. Three bobs of the 
Adam's apple constituted a portion, when two were in 
partnership ; or if there were three members in the firm, 
then but two. And as the fellow who had hold was inter- 
ested in getting all he possibly could out of it, he would take 
such awful long swallows that he would sometimes strangle 
himself, for it is liquid fire. Or at other times the next one 
on the list, fearing that the one in possession was about to 
take an extra suck, would jerk the stem away from him. In 
either case, the first member would have a claim to the final 
suck, to reimburse him for losses sustained at first. This 
was usually allowed, especially as it resulted merely in ob- 
taining a mouthful of perfumed air. 

It was a case of this kind that resulted in the discovery 
of the graft. The hands had been " turned to "' after din- 
ner, and the mate was sending up a new fore topgallant mast, 
so he stepped up on the forecastle to watch the mast on its 
way aloft. Now it so happened that big " Danish Jim " and 
a Russian Finn by the name of Jake had gone into partner- 
ship to buy samshaw, and either not hearing the order to 
" turn to " at one o'clock, or else being intent on their com- 
mercial transaction, they remained over the bows ; and in 
quarrelling over their trade they raised their voices so that 
Mr. Davis heard them, and looked over the bow just as they 
came to blows. Jim hit Jake a punch which upset him, and 
not having a good hold on anything, away he went over- 
board, nearly upsetting the Chinaman's sampan on his way 
down. Mr. Davis threw the end of a downhaul to Jake and 



62 ON MANY SEAS 

threw the belaying pin that belonged to it after the China- 
man, with such good aim that it knocked his hat ofT, and 
the mate said he heard it rattle on his shaven skull as if it 
had been made of the same kind of wood. Jake was fished 
out wet and sober, and that put an end to the samshaw 
trade aboard the Tanjore. 



CHAPTER VII 

Chinese Peddlers. — " Country-Wauling. "^ — Trained Ele- 
phants AT Work. — A " Hoodooed" Bale of Wool. — A 
Fight with English Sailors. 

I HAVE heard it said that the Chinese thieves will dive 
under a vessel's bottom and strip the copper off her. I have 
never known it to be done, but I know they are expert 
thieves, for, without coming near you apparently, they will 
get almost anything you have. Not that Jack Tar is any 
too honest in dealing with them either. The very first day 
in port, a peddler came aboard with a lot of what the sailors 
call "bamboo " silk. He had several bolts of it tied up in 
a cloth, which he incautiously laid down on deck and opened 
for our inspection, when one of the men grabbed the end of 
a belt of bright yellow silk and started forward on the run, 
the belt of course unwinding as he ran. 

Into the forecastle he went with it and was coiling it away 
in his bunk when the enraged Chinaman arrived, and one of 
the other fellows whipping out his sheath-knife cut it off at 
the door just as John grabbed it with both hands and gave 
a big yank back ; the natural consequence being that he sat 
down suddenly and with pronounced emphasis on the end 
of a spare topmast. Rising again more in anger than in 
sorrow he approached the forecastle door, and to use Old 
Ned's favourite expression when alluding to me, he gave 
more lip than a right whale. He was met by such physical 

63 



64 ON MANY SEAS 

arguments as sailors frequently use when they think it safe 
to do so, and which are supposed to be comprehensible by 
the most benighted heathen. 

Poor John; robbed; insulted; abused; licked; he re- 
turned to the main hatch only to find that his other goods 
had entirely disappeared. 

For months after that, silk caps were the proper thing on 
board the Tanjore ; and Old Ned had a pair of old canvas 
pants with one big yellow silk patch on one knee, and a 
green one on the other, while his stern, when he was lean- 
ing over the yard, blazed out in gorgeous crimson silk, like 
a setting sun at the close of a sultry day. 

Among others, a tailor came aboard and offered to make 
us clothes " sheep," and Mr. Oliver ordered a coat. When 
it came, he didn't like the English cut of it ; so, to show the 
tailor what it was that he objected to, he brought out a coat 
of his own and let him see the difference. Then the tailor, 
partly by signs and partly in pigeon English, asked him if 
he would pay for a coat made like that, and Mr. Oliver told 
him yes ; so he took the old coat ashore, and came off a 
couple of days after with its very counterpart, even to a big 
hole in each elbow, one pocket ripped half off, and the only 
button hanging by a couple of threads. 

The captain, not finding a freight here to suit him, said 
he would go " country- wauHng," that is, coasting, and so we 
put in nine months of the hardest and most unsatisfactory 
work that it has ever been my lot to fall in with. We would 
run into some little " hole in the land," and perhaps get a 
lighter load of stuff for another place forty or fifty miles 
away. Frequently we would not let go the anchor at all, 
but back the main topsail, get in whatever there was to go, 
and square away again, or brace up, as the case might be. 
Our crew gradually deserted, for they got tired of working 
cargo all the time and sailing and heaving anchor the rest ; 



" COUNTRY- WAULING " 65 

and what a fine lot of beach-combers we picked up in their 
places ! — old rounders some of them who had been on the 
coast since the year one, when Adam was " oakum " boy in 
the Brooklyn navy yard. They got thirty dollars per month, 
and divided their time about equally between drinking sam- 
shaw — for Mr. Davis was no match for them, and failed to 
stop their supply of the stuff — and cursing the Tanjore as 
being the worst " bloody hooker " they ever saw on the 
" bloody " coast. 

Once we got as far west as Moulmein, in India, and here 
I saw trained elephants doing labourers' work. They were 
employed in piling heavy timber. Four elephants, and 
another who acts as foreman, comprise a gang. The fore- 
man marches with a quick, lively, swinging gait at the head 
of his gang to the timber to be moved ; they then all face 
round and, placing their trunks under it, raise it about a foot 
from the ground and march off with it. As they go, the 
timber swings in time with their step, as if it hung in the 
bights of four big cables, and, in piling it, they first lay 
small logs crossways, so that their trunks may not be 
jammed when they lay the timber down, and also so that 
at any future time they can reach under it and pick it up. 
As they always take this precaution, they can handle it with- 
out any trouble, and in order to pile it high up, they make 
their piles in the shape of steps ; and it is indeed a strange 
sight to see these huge beasts walk up these timber stairs, 
like soldiers, carrying their heavy burden to a height of 
perhaps twenty-five or thirty feet, when, having arrived at 
the top, they lay it carefully and accurately down, building 
their pile quite true and plumb ; then, each turning in his 
own length, they march down again all together. The fore- 
man carries a short piece of chain, with which he does not 
hesitate to correct any member of his gang who shirks or 
does anything contrary to the rules. 



66 ON MANY SEAS 

There was a steam sawmill where we were, and it was 
amusing to see them when the whistle blew for twelve 
o'clock. If they had a timber in their trunks, they wouldn't 
dare to drop it, for if they did they couldn't pick it up 
again, as it would he fiat on the ground ; so they would start 
on a clumsy-looking but mighty swift run for the nearest 
pile, and, dropping it wherever there were crosspieces to 
lay it on, gallop away to dinner ; nor would they come out 
either in the morning or afternoon until the whistle blew. 

Nine months from the time we left Hong Kong we were, 
owing to some information which Captain Hurlburt had re- 
ceived, on our way again to Melbourne, where it seems that 
wool freights had picked up enough to make it worth our 
while to take a cargo. Arrived at Sandridge wharf again, 
we discharged, and began loading wool for London. The 
v>rool came down on the deck in big loose bales, which were 
compressed to about one-half their bulk, right alongside the 
ship, by a little portable engine and press. We had regular 
screwmen from shore to stow it, and one day a bale fell out 
of the sling, when up to the level of the main-yard, and, 
dropping down the hatch, struck the tier of stowed bales in 
the hatch just below the level of the 'tween-decks. Now 
wool is very elastic, so when this bale dropped so far, and 
onto other bales of the same kind, it naturally bounded 
high in the air. There were four screwmen standing together 
just abaft the hatch, and, as the bale fell again from the 
rebound, it landed in the 'tween-decks on one corner and 
gave another bound directly at them. They turned to jump 
out of the way, and, looking back, saw the big, heavy bale 
of wool still bounding along towards them, so they broke 
into a run aft, and none too soon either, for it was following 
them and gaining on them too ; so the leader in this gro- 
tesque race darted across the deck to the other side, and 
the others, realizing the good judgment of the manoeuvre, 



" COUNTRY- WAULING " 6/ 

followed, so as to let the bale pass by them and roll aft as 
far as it had a mind to. Imagine, then, their amazement and 
fear when they saw this frisky bale knock up against one of 
the knees in the ship's side, which deflected it from its 
course, so that it turned and followed them across the deck, 
passing between the very same two stanchions through which 
they themselves had just come. Again they fled, but forward 
this time, and the bale, as if bewitched, in passing the 
stanchions got another slight knock on one corner, which 
caused it to partly turn forward on its course. 

The hindmost screwman, glancing back over his shoulder 
and seeing that the bale had apparently turned all the cor- 
ners and was still in pursuit, let a terrified yell out of him . 
to the others to " 'urry up " as the "bloody" bale was 
" 'oodooed " ; and so they all sprinted for the fore hatch, 
where there was a ladder, and up the ladder went the four 
worst scared Englishmen it has ever been my good fortune 
to see ; while the poor innocent bale, having expended its 
momentum shortly after crossing to the other side of the 
deck, fell on its side and lay waiting for the cotton hooks to 
be stuck into its fat sides ; but it was some time before the 
bold Britons could be persuaded to go below and tackle it. 

There were lying in port at this time three old American 
extreme clipper ships, — the Red Jacket, the Gamecock, and 
the Champion of the Sea. They were all big, handsome 
ships, but were now to all intents and purposes English, as 
during the war, like thousands of others, they had taken an 
English register for the sake of the protection which the flag 
afforded them from the Alabama. So that the Tanjore was 
the only genuine American ship in port ; and in contrast to 
these big, two and three thousand ton fellows, she did look 
rather insignificant, although in all other respects she was 
the equal of any of them. The English sailors had chris- 
tened our ship the Boston Box, and this was how we found 



68 ON MANY SEAS 

it out. There was, not very far from the wharf, a "free 
and easy " ; that is, a place, part saloon and part concert 
hall, where it was expected that members of the audience 
would volunteer to sing, dance, spar, or do anything to help 
out the evening's entertainment. The seats were straight- 
backed settees arranged like the pews in a church. Natu- 
rally it was quite a popular resort with the sailors. So one 
Saturday night a delegation of us went ashore, and drifted 
into the " free and easy," where we all filed into one seat ; 
the post of honour — the seat next the aisle — being kept 
by " Russian Finn Jake," a big, heavy fellow who was as 
strong as an ox, and prided himself on being Irish, and 
although he could hardly make himself understood in 
English, he would take serious offence if anybody expressed 
a doubt of the truth of his assertion that he was Irish. He 
was one of the few who had stuck to the ship all through, 
and he had got to feel a little sailorly pride in her. He had 
on one of those tall soft hats which were common enough in 
those days in the States, and known as " Kossuth." 

While the boatswain of the Champion of the Sea was on 
the stage giving us a song about the " Lass that loves a sailor," 
one of the other Britons ranged up alongside of Jake and, 
in a voice that could have been heard half a mile away, 
roared out as he slapped him heavily on the shoulder : 

" Ship ahoy ; what ship. Matey ? " 

Jake looked up innocently, and answered in his broken 
English : 

" Tanjore, of Boston." 

"Oho, the Boston Box, hey?" says the Englishman, and 
at the same time he caught hold of the brim of Jake's tall 
hat with both hands and attempted to jam it down over his 
head, but the hat was getting old I suppose ; at any rate, 
instead of slipping down over his face, the brim parted 
company with the crown all round and went down around 



« COUNTRY- WAULING " 69 

his neck, leaving the crown, now apparently twice as tall as 
before, standing up like a joint of stovepipe. 

Up jumped Jake, boiling over with twofold rage. His hat 
was ruined, and his ship had been insulted by a "lime- 
juice sailor." 

"You call mine skip de Boston Box? you lemon-pelting 
son of a sea cook," said Jake, as he grabbed the Englishman 
by the throat. 

Instantly the place was in an uproar. We all jumped up, 
capsizing our seat. The lights went out as if by magic, and 
there was a general scrimmage right away. 

I managed to get out of doors, and made my way to a 
pile of brick which I had noticed in front of a new building 
across the street, and as our fellows came out, or were thrown 
out, I called them over until we were all together again, 
when, arming ourselves with half a dozen bricks apiece, 
we recrossed the street. The Enghshmen were apparently 
enjoying themselves within ; so we drew up our forces on 
the outside. There were three windows on that side, and 
there were just six of us ; so we stationed ourselves two to 
a window, and at a signal we commenced firing our bricks 
just as fast as we could, demolishing the windows, of course, 
at the very first round, and doing glorious execution among 
the enemy. As soon as our ammunition was gone, we turned 
tail and headed for the Boston Box under a heavy press of 
sail, with a hooting, cursing crowd in our wake ; but a stern 
chase is proverbially a long chase, and they never caught us, 
and it's lucky they didn't, for they outnumbered us five or six 
to one. But that was about the last of our going ashore at 
Sandridge. The next day the landlord of the concert hall 
came aboard with a warrant for the arrest of the entire crew, 
captain, officers, and all, and as we acknowledged ourselves 
guilty of destroying his property and he had an officer with 
him, the old man " paid the shot," and it was afterwards 
taken out of our wages. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Bound for London. — A Dutch-Irish Crew. — Mike 
Cregan spins a Yarn. 

Some more of our men left us here, wages being good on 
the coast, and about this time there came saihng up the bay 
another American ship, the General Berry of Thomaston, 
Maine, from Dundee, Scotland. Her two mates were both 
great big Swedes, and they had abused and hcked the crew 
so that the very first night they all left her. She got her 
cargo out in a hurry, and took in ballast for Callao. 

The captain left word to have a crew of Dutchmen ready 
for him by the time he got in the stream, and the shipping 
master agreed to fill the order, which he did by picking up 
twenty-two Londonderry Irishmen. The first job they had 
to do was to send up the royal yards, and all hands tailed 
onto the main royal yard rope, which was passed through a 
lead block in the deck, and stood and pulled away in silence, 
like the veriest "sojers." 

" Come, sing out there, some of you," roars the big 
Swedish mate ; for without somebody to give the time for 
pulling together, getting up a royal yard is but a slow job. 
Nobody made any answer ; and still they pulled away in 
silence, giving little short jerks to the rope that would not 
have mastheaded that yard in a week. So the mate went 
over, and he poked the big, six-foot, red-headed, freckle- 
faced "Derry " Dutchman who was at the head of the rope 

70 



MIKE CREGAN'S YARN 7 1 

in the ribs with his list, saying, " Hey, dere, sing out, vill 



you 



I " 



" I didn't come here to sing, sorr," says Derry. 

"What did you come here for?" 

"To Uck a Dutchman, begorr." 

And witli that every man Jack of them dropped the 
rope, and down came the yard, and through the deck, 
afterward falUng over and breaking off the yard-arm, while 
the Derry men swabbed the decks with tlie two Swedisli 
mates. I guess there is no doubt that before tlie General 
Berry left Melbourne the wrongs of her outward-bound 
crew had been avenged ; for she had the police flag at her 
main truck daily. But the captain didn't dare to discharge 
his crew, for men were scarce, and he was ready for sea ; 
so finally one day they picked up their mud-hook, and 
away they went for Callao ; and bets were easy that those 
mates had a lively passage of it. 

Our cargo being now in, Captain Hurlburt shipped what 
men were necessary to make up our complement of hands, 
and one bright clear morning, in company with six other 
big ships, and to the tune of " Homeward Bound," which 
was sung by the Red Jacket's boatswain sitting on the heel 
of the jib-boom, all the crews of the other five ships joining 
in the chorus, " Hooraw, me boys, we're homeward bound ! " 
we got under way for London. 

One of the men who joined us in Melbourne was an 
Irishman by the name of Mike Cregan, and he was the life 
of the ship all the passage home. As soon as we got sail on 
her, the pilot called out, "A hand in the chains," which 
means that he wants a man to heave the hand-lead, which 
is a mighty disagreeable job, especially in cold weather, as it 
then was, for it is a continuous job of handling a wet line ; 
but as it is the rule in American ships for the nearest man 
to jump when an order is given, and as Mike happened to 



72 ON MANY SEAS 

be right there coiKng up a rope, he had to go, and I guess 
his head didn't feel any too " good," either, after his last 
night on shore. So of course it was pretty tough medicine, 
but he kept the lead going all right, singing out the sound- 
ings as sailormen do. 

By and bye Mike spied the captain and his wife as they 
came on deck to take a walk, and when they reached the 
break of the poop, he took a cast of the lead and sang out, 
" Oh, I'd rather be a-coortin' the captain's daughter nor 
havein' the lead in this cowld frosty wather. By the mark 
seven ! " Mrs. Hurlburt said something to her husband, and 
he asked Mr. Davis to send somebody in the chains that 
knew how to handle a lead-hne, to the great dehght of 
Mike, who, however, got in on deck with a face as long as a 
fiddle, pretending to' feel the disgrace of being relieved from 
the lead-line. 

All the voyage home, he used to tell us regular serial 
stories in the dog-watch ; and one man kept himself in 
tobacco all the way, by taking wheels and lookouts for 
men who did not want to miss a chapter of Mike's story. 

I remember one yarn which he told of an adventure of 
his own. He was in the ship BalJ Eagle, of New York, 
when she was burned by Chinese coohes, five hundred miles 
east of Manilla, on their way to Callao, Peru. It was blow- 
ing a good, stiff breeze, but the sea hadn't got up much 
yet, and she was reeling off her ten knots easy enough. 
About five bells in the afternoon watch, the Chinamen, who 
had been as still as mice, suddenly broke out in a simultaneous 
shout, rose up as one man and pulled down their bunk boards, 
and made a rush for the hatchway ladders. Fortunately, the 
yell they gave warned the crew, and they slapped the hatch 
gratings on, and fastened them down. Evidently, now, the 
proper thing to do was to starve them into submission or 
death, if they wouldn't submit ; for, no matter what their 



MIKE CREGAN'S YARN 73 

grievance might be, the time for considering that had passed, 
and forcible subjugation was the only remedy for them. 
But the captain was a Portuguese, and he brought out 
his revolvers and began shooting them down, through the 
gratings ; and the mates got theirs out, too, and took a hand. 
The Chinamen were so frenzied that they would stand out 
in the open hatchway, apparently cursing and defying the 
officers to do their worst, until there was a pile of dead 
bodies under the hatch four or five deep, and somehow, 
during the fusillade, a spark from a revolver ignited the 
clothing of one of the dead coolies. 

The rest saw it, and fell over one another and suffered 
themselves to be shot, in their mad desire to get hold of 
the burning cloth. 

One fellow grabbed the smouldering part and tore it 
from the garment, and was about to blow it to keep it alive, 
when he was shot dead from above ; but almost before he 
fell, another had grabbed the burning rag from his hand, 
only to be shot down in his turn. But there were plenty 
more; and, shoot as fast and as accurately as they might, 
the bit of burning cloth at last disappeared from the hatch- 
way altogether. It had gone forward to the Chinamen's 
quarters ; and in the course of half an hour smoke was 
reported as coming out of the fofe and main hatches. 

They didn't dare to lift a hatch, nor would any one have 
dared to go down there, if they had ; so they got the car- 
penter to chop small holes in the deck, and they put the 
wash-deck hose through them, connected it to the force- 
pump, and pumped for dear life. Now, chopping holes in 
the deck is a desperate remedy, when there is nothing but 
fire to fight ; but when, in addition, there were hundreds 
of maddened Chinamen down there, determined to burn 
the ship, it was merely wasting time and strength pumping 
water in anions them. 



74 ON MANY SEAS 

By this time, the Chinamen themselves were suffocating 
with the smoke and heat. It would seem they had expected 
that the crew would open the hatches, to get down and put 
out the fire, and that would be their chance to get on deck 
and take charge of the ship. No doubt, that was their idea 
in setting her on fire ; and when it first dawned on them 
that their plan had miscarried, and they were to be left to 
roast in their own fire, then there was pandemonium. 

The spaces under the hatches were packed soUd with 
writhing, shrieking humanity ; for the others, who were 
directly exposed to the smoke and flames, pressed in upon 
them from all sides, until they could hardly have been 
rammed in tighter with cotton-screws, and the faces of the 
miserable wretches who were visible in the hatchway were 
a nightmare. Their dirty, yellow complexions turned a 
sickly green ; their eyeballs almost burst from their sockets, 
as they glared up at the fast waning daylight which was to 
be the last they were ever to see ; and their big, ugly mouths 
were stretched in a continuous yell, or, rather, screech, as 
they squirmed like a nest of eels. Even the Portuguese 
captain hadn't the heart to shoot any more of them, but 
left them to stew in their own juice, while he and his officers 
gave their attention to saving their own lives. 

After a great deal of trouble they got the ship hove to, 
for it was now getting quite dark, and the dense smoke 
which was pouring out of the hatches and the holes cut by 
the carpenter made it impossible to see a thing, and hardly 
possible to breathe. To make matters worse, it now began 
to rain in torrents ; and the cries of the imprisoned China- 
men made it impossible to hear an order five feet from the 
person giving it. However, about eight o'clock in the 
evening they got their boats over, — the long-boat, and 
three quarter-boats, one of which was stove in in the launch- 
ing. That left them rather short for boat room. 



MIKE CREGAN'S YARN 75 

The ship was now a roaring furnace, and the last wail of 
the last dying Chinaman had gone up in smoke. The stench 
was horrible, and they naturally got away from the wreck as 
fast as possible. A little water and some hardtack was 
stowed in each boat, about enough for one square meal for 
the crowd there was to go, — twenty-two able seamen, six 
apprentices, the captain and four mates, cook and steward, 
boatswain, carpenter and sailmaker, thirty-eight souls all 
told, to sail five hundred miles through stormy seas in three 
small open boats. The quarter-boats could take but ten 
apiece, consequently the long-boat must take eighteen, and 
when they were all in her the gunwales were almost awash ; 
and the other boats were not much better off. 

The long-boat was rigged with two masts and big sails. 
The other boats had no sails or masts, so the captain took 
command of the long-boat and put a compass in her, also a 
track chart. A topmast stunsail tack was thrown into one 
of the quarter-boats for a tow-line, as it was decided to tow 
them astern of the long-boat. The wind and sea were 
nearly dead aft, and the captain having taken his departure 
from the ship's position, they squared away for Manilla. 
They were in great danger of being pooped by the heavy 
seas before they could get headway on the two boats in tow. 
After a while, however, a couple of the men stood up and 
held their coats open in the other boats, and these acting as 
sails got them going so that they had reasonable hopes of 
keeping ahead of the heavy sea that was running. 

When the long-boat pitched into the trough, she was 
becalmed, and the other boats, being on the crest where 
they received the full force of the wind, seemed to be in 
imminent danger of running her down, and then again 
when she rose on the next one until her sail caught the wind 
it seemed as if she would tear the whole stern out of her- 
self as the tow-line whipped out of the water as taut as a 



•J^ ON MANY SEAS 

bar of steel. And so they kept on all night long, all hands 
taking turns at baiUng the water out, which came in in a con- 
tinuous flood over both gunwales. Once the sheet parted, 
but fortunately it was just as she took a plunge into the 
hollow, so that by quick work they were able to get the sail 
set again before she was swamped by the heavy sea, or the 
mast taken out of her by the flapping of the sail. 

At last morning dawned on them, wet, cold, and hungry, 
and their small stock of hardtack was served out to all 
hands equally, the captain remarking that they had better 
eat it while it was in pretty fair condition, as it might be 
wet with salt water at any time. Mike, not being altogether 
starved yet, put his inside his blue shirt without tasting it ; 
and it was well he did so, for they were three nights and two 
days in the boats before they were picked up, and Mike 
would put his biscuit in his mouth and nibble off little bits 
surreptitiously in the night, holding them in his mouth until 
they dissolved, and then slowly swallowing them, and he 
said he never knew until then the deliciousness of ship's 
hardtack. 

Although the Bald Eagle was an American ship, she had 
been in the coolie trade so long that all her original crew 
had gradually left her, and the captain, being a Portuguese, 
had gradually filled their places with his own countrymen ; 
so that, although there were many other foreigners in the 
crew, it so happened that Mike was the only one in the 
long-boat not a Portuguese, and although he had always 
been on the most friendly terms with them, yet, now, in 
their perilous situation it seemed to him that they regarded 
him with anything but pleasant looks, and as they confined 
their conversation entirely to their own language, of which 
he understood not a word, his imagination had fuU play. 

His seat was in the bow, he was the farthest forward of 
any, and as he faced aft he could see the immense combers 



MIKE CREGAN'S YARN 7/ 

as they reared their massive heads high over the boat, till 
apparently no power on earth could prevent them breaking 
directly into her, in which case she must have swamped in- 
evitably, and yet she rose each time safely to the crest, 
although she almost stood on her head to do it. 

At night, when the only light was that furnished by the 
phosphorescence of the breaking seas, it was even more 
terrible ; for, being unable to judge distance in the dark, the 
sudden appearance apparently direcdy overhead of a break- 
ing sea would bring his heart into the mouth of the stoutest 
of them. No wonder that they hailed with delight the dis- 
mal dawn ; but if it relieved their fears in some degree, it 
brought to the superstitious Portuguese sailors a new and 
perhaps greater dread, for not twenty feet to starboard of 
the boat and directly abeam was the dorsal fin of a huge 
shark, and this disagreeable escort never left them while 
they remained in the boat. 

He did not always keep the same relative position ; for 
two or three times a day he would drop slowly in alongside, 
and after casting up his evil eye at them, apparently counting 
them to see if any had got away, he would sink slowly until 
almost out of sight, gradually reappearing on the other side. 
When he made these transits, the Portuguese would turn 
their faces from him, cross themselves piously, and call on 
San Antonio as devoutly as though they thought he was in 
the shark-fishing industry, and would be only too glad to rid 
them of their convoy. So passed two nights and a day. At 
dawn of the second day the men could hardly recognize 
each other, for although they were not very badly off for 
water, there being a half pannikin served out to each man 
twice a day, yet they had no food, and the mental strain was 
terrible ; the exposure to the cold and wet, their cramped 
positions in the crowded boat, and the grisly suggestion of 
the shark's continual presence, all tended to wear them out. 



y^ ON MANY SEAS 

It was during this day that Mike noticed the suggestive 
glances of the Portuguese in his direction when talking in 
low tones among themselves, and the horrible thought en- 
tered his mind that they were consulting over eating him, 
and he quietly drew his sheath-knife and kept it in readi- 
ness, determined that he would not furnish the first nor the 
only contribution to the ship's stores. After that he never 
slept a wink on board the boat. 

The weather did not vary in the slightest degree all the 
time they were in the open sea. The compass was useful 
only to note the direction of their course, for all they could 
do was to keep the wind enough on the quarter to keep 
both the lines drawing. By constant care and watchfulness 
on the part of the other two boats' crews as well as their own, 
the tow-hnes were kept from parting. The captain and the 
boatswain alternately did the steering of the long-boat, and 
there was some satisfaction in knowing they were making 
good headway, and in the right direction too. And so the 
third night shut down on them. But by this time they had 
become so accustomed to their situation that they didn't 
expect to be swamped every minute, and besides they had 
learned how to trim the boat so that she made better 
weather of it, and did not ship so much water. Once 
during the night Mike, who remained awake clutching his 
knife and watching the Portuguese, thought he heard a faint 
cry astern, but as no one else seemed to notice it he said 
nothing. 

The captain just before dark gave the crew some orders 
in Portuguese, and noticing Mike away forward told him to 
keep a good lookout, as he expected to raise the land at any 
time now ; but Mike was so busy watching the " Dagos " that 
he didn't bother much about the land. Towards morning, 
however, he espied a fog bank ahead and notified the boat- 
swain, who was steering, telling him he had better call the 



MIKE CREGAN'S YARN /9 

captain, as perhaps that fog bank might be on the coast, and 
although the wind had moderated a httle, still it was blow- 
ing hard enough yet, should they run suddenly on the land, 
to wreck them badly. The boatswain said he didn't fear 
wrecking on the beach, but rather hankered for it ; all he 
was afraid of was that the wind would haul off-shore before 
they could get there, and then it would be a hopeless case 
of beating. While talking they entered the fog, which was 
so dense they could hardly see their own boat's length, but 
at the same time both the wind and sea moderated very 
considerably, so much so that for the first time the jerking 
of the tow-line ceased, and she was able to keep a tolerably 
steady strain on it ; and as the dull gray began to show in 
the east the wind died away altogether, and the rising sun 
hfted the fog and showed them the green fields and hills of 
Manilla. 

They were already in the harbour, but as they looked 
round to congratulate their shipmates, they saw to their dis- 
may that the second mate's boat was missing. It was prob- 
ably a shout from her crew that Mike heard in the night 
when they found their tow-line parted ; for now that she was 
gone, several others spoke of having heard it. 

They got out their oars and pulled up to an English gun- 
boat, the Rattlesnake, and told their story. They were 
taken on board, the anchor was raised, and the gunboat 
went out with them on board looking for the second mate's 
boat, which they found about eleven o'clock, bottom up, and 
the whole port side stove in. Not a living soul, however, 
was to be found, nor even a dead body ; and then the men 
remembered with a queer feehng the " shovel-nose " that 
had convoyed them for hundreds of miles, and evidently 
not for nothing. As to what stove the boat in, whether she 
was run down by some native vessel carrying no lights or by 
a whale or something of the kind, will never be known ; 



8o ON MANY SEAS 

although some of the Portuguese insisted that the shark, 
reahzing that they were nearing the land and fearing that they 
should escape him altogether, breached into the boat for a 
victim, wrecking her in the act. This, of course, is an open 
question. 

I noticed that whenever Mike talked to us about the burn- 
ing of the Bald Eagle, although it had happened years before, 
he would dream of it that night, and sometimes jump out of 
his bunk and run on deck yelling that they were after him 
or something to that effect, from which 1 judged that the 
yarn was at least based upon truth, and that perhaps he 
hadn't told us all of the part that he took in the affair. 

I once asked him if, during those three, long, terrible 
nights, especially the last one that was so full of horror to 
him, he never prayed. He told me that he tried to, tried 
hard, but that he could think of nothing but the line of a 
song which he heard an EngUsh sailor sing just before he left 
Manilla : 

" And she winked at Jack with her funny eye." 



CHAPTER IX 

" Southing and Easting " — Almost a Collision. — Antarc- 
tic Ice. — The Crash of Bergs. 

As soon as we were clear of Tasmania, Captain Hurlburt 
hauled his wind, and headed her well up for the Cape Horn 
latitudes. If you will look at a globe, you will notice that all 
the meridians of longitude meet at either pole, so that if you 
have to go as we had, south to get around a corner, and then 
away north again, you might as well sail directly south on 
your meridian, then sail east until you have passed your 
corner and reached a meridian which will take you where 
you want to go, so that as the meridians are close together 
in these high latitudes, you can, by making very little easting, 
arrive at the meridian you want ; when by saihng due north 
without any easting in your course, the natural spread of the 
meridians as they approach the equator will give you easting 
without your having sailed it. Also, the higher you go in 
latitude, the stronger and steadier are the winds, and, as 
the prevailing winds around the Horn are westerly, of course 
that was just what we wanted, and lots of it. 

Daily, yes, and hourly, the weather grew worse, and still 
the Tanjore's jib-boom was pointed for the Antarctic pole. 
After several days of this kind of thing, our watch was called 
one morning, and, as the weather was now too bad to do any 
work on deck except take care of the ship, the man who 
called us stepped inside the door a minute, out of the con- 
G 8i 



82 ON MANY SEAS 

tinual smother that was coming over the weather cathead. 
Old Ned asked him if the old man had kept her off any. 

" No," said Pete ; " he is still poking her to the south'ard." 

"Well, blast him," said Ned. "I see what I shall have 
to do." 

We all wondered what that would be, and Johnson, the 
Dutch ordinary seaman, remarked timidly that he wondered 
what the old man was keeping her so far south for. 

"Don't yer know d— d well?" says Old Ned. "It's 
so he can sell out his d — d old slop chest. I'll go aft 
after breakfast and buy a couple of pairs of stockings and 
a monkey jacket from him, and that d — d old Queen of 
Sheba of his, and see if he won't keep her off a point or two 
for the Horn and not bury us down here in the ice and 
snow." 

So after breakfast Ned went aft and bought some " slops," 
and, sure enough, as he came out of the forward cabin door 
with his purchase, the captain came up the after companion- 
way, told the man at the wheel to keep her off a couple of 
points, and word was passed along to take a pull at the 
weather braces and loose the main topgallant sail, and we 
afterwards set the mainsail and upper foresail, and I presume 
that to this day, if he is alive, Old Ned firmly believes that ■ 
Captain Hurlburt kept her off because he made a purchase 
from the slop chest, and would have kept on shoving her 
south until the present time if somebody hadn't gone aft 
and broken the spell. We now began to get into regular 
Cape Horn weather ; it wasn't but a little time till he had 
her dead before it, and oh ! how it did blow ! but we had 
bent all brand-new storm-sails on leaving Melbourne. All 
three of the topsails, foresail, fore topmast staysail, jib, and 
main topgallant sail were all new, or nearly new, sails ; and 
they needed to be ; for although we were driving dead 
before it, and, of course, didn't realize anything like the 



THE CRASH OF ICEBERGS 8^ 

full strength of the wind, still it was easy to understand that 
a fearful gale was blowing, and it was bitterly cold, with 
squalls of snow and hail which blew almost horizontally, and 
it seemed as if it might cut holes in the heavy topsails it was 
so sharp, and flew with such terrific force. 

We now had a pretty steady job at the main topgallant 
halyards, for nearly every time a squall would strike her it 
would be " clew down," and before the squall would be half 
over, " hoist up," until it seemed as if we would wear the 
halyards out. Finally, the weather got so bad that we clewed 
it up altogether, one night, and called the watch to reef the 
main topsail. We were congratulating ourselves that we had 
got rid of that old topgallant sail at last, when, as we were 
hauhng out the weather topsail reef tackle, we heard Mr. 
Oliver ask the old man if he should send the hands up to 
farl the topgallant sail. 

"No," said the old man; "what do you want to furl 
that for? Reef your tops'l and set the to'gallants'l over it." 
So we hadn't got rid of it yet. 

Up to this time, since leaving New York over a year ago, 
no such thing as grog had ever been known on board the 
Tanjore ; but this was a pretty tough night. A man couldn't 
possibly get out of the forecastle and come aft without get- 
ting a dousing ; and as all our clothes, including oilskins, 
were soaking, you can imagine how pleasant it was to go 
up on a yard in the icy gale and stay there perhaps an hour 
or more, reefing. So I suppose the old man must have 
pitied our misery that night, for he called the steward and 
told him to bring out a bottle and glass and give the men a 
glass of grog when they came from aloft. The men were 
straggling along down the rigging then. Somebody heard 
the order, and like lightning the word was passed along : 

"We're going to get a glass of grog." Mike was in the 
top when the word reached him ; and Old Ned, who had 



84 ON MANY SEAS 

been to the weather earing, was crawh'ng in along the yard. 
Mike and Ned were old cronies, being both shellbacks from 
the olden time, so in the excitement of such unexpected 
good news Mike roared out to Ned, loud enough to be 
heard above the gale, " Hey, Ned? Hello ! Hurry down ! 
The old man's heart is open. He's going to give us a 
glass of grog. Hurry ! or it's liable to close again." 

"You're dead right," says Old Ned. " What in h is 

going to happen, I wonder?" So down they hurried to 
the deck. Just then the man at the weather helm struck 
eight bells, and the mate ordered all hands aft to " splice 
the main brace," — the first time 1 ever heard that order 
given on board the Tanjore. 

Now, unfortunately for all hands, the captain had heard 
the little pleasantry that passed between Mike and Ned up 
aloft, and didn't Hke it. So when we all got ranged along 
in front of the cabin, with our mouths all made up for the 
unexpected treat, he called out " Steward ! " 

"Yes, sir." 

"You needn't mind giving any grog to the watch that's 
just going below ; they're going to their warm beds and 
don't need it." 

" All right, sir." 

" And say, Steward ! " 

"Yes, sir." 

"You needn't mind giving any to the watch that's just 
come on deck, because they only just came from their warm 
beds, and they don't need any. Give me a glass, and put 
the bottle away again ; the old man's heart is closed. Man 
the topsail halyards there ! " 

If the topsail tie had been fast to the old man's neck then, 
and his feet lashed to the slings of the yard, we would have 
pulled with a mighty sight better will than we did as we set 
the reefed topsail and the topgallant sail over it. 



THE CRASH OF ICEBERGS 85 

During all this period two men were kept constantly at 
the wheel, and all the rest were supposed to be on lookout 
on various parts of the ship ; for we were going so fast that 
in order to avoid a collision with anything that might be in 
our path it would be necessary to see it at the earhest 
possible moment. On account of the almost continuous 
snow-squalls it was impossible to see much of anything ; 
but one day, as we went flying over the top of one of the 
huge Cape Horn seas, the like of which are not to be seen 
anywhere else in the world, what should we see in the hol- 
low, and not a quarter of a mile away, but a great big iron 
ship, evidently English — lead-coloured topsides, painted 
ports, and red bottom. She had all three of her topgallant 
masts housed and was " lying to " under a tarpaulin in the 
mizzen rigging ; not another stitch was she showing to it. 
She appeared to be making good weather from what little 
we could see of her as we shot past ; for, having put a single 
sea between us, we saw no more of her. 

I can imagine their sensations when they saw us come 
out of the snow like a phantom, stand out sharp and clear 
for an instant, and quietly and swiftly disappear into the 
blurry again. It must have left a feeling of thankfulness 
with them, as it did with us, that we passed clear, for had 
the iron monster lain in our path, no human power could 
have saved either of us ; we would surely have cut her clean 
in two, and would both have sunk. And they must have 
thought the Yankee was carrying sail, for of course they, 
being "hove to," felt the full force of the gale; while we, 
who were flying before it, were relieved of a great deal of its 
weight. We had on at the time, fore topmast staysail, lower 
fore topsail, reefed main topsail, and main topgallant sail, 
and that was enough, I assure you. 

At this time we got strict orders to keep a sharp lookout 
for ice. Icebergs carry no lights and no fog horns. Still, 



86 ON MANY SEAS 

they have a way of letting you know when they are in your 
neighbourhood, especially if they are to windward. You 
can feel a decided drop in temperature ; but of course 
windward ice could do us no harm, as we were coming 
from the windward ourselves. But even to leeward, ice in 
large quantities will give some warning ; so the thermome- 
ter was kept hanging alongside the binnacle, and the mates 
watched it sharply for a sudden drop. But we ploughed 
along day after day without seeing any, until finally the ice 
scare began to wear out. 

One night it had been snowing hard and blowing very 
heavy, with the regulation Cape Horn seas running. All 
hands had been keeping the best lookout possible, which 
wasn't much, however, for it was impossible, of course, 
to see through the blinding snow. But about five o'clock 
in the morning the downfall suddenly eased off", and as it 
did so an excited chorus came from forward : " Ice ! Ice ! 
Ice on the starboard bow ! Ice on the port bow ! " 

At the very first alarm, Mr. Oliver yelled " Ice ! " down 
the after companion as loud as he could. This brought up 
the captain and all the after guards. He then hurried for- 
ward to see what could be done to avoid colhsion ; for, as ice 
had been reported on both bows, and yet nobody had re- 
ported ice dead ahead, I suppose he thought he might find 
a way through the difficulty, if he got where he could see. 
Well, it wasn't a very encouraging prospect. Away on the 
starboard bow there seemed to be a huge floe or ice island, 
reaching far out of sight to the southward, its northern ex- 
tremity ending in an immense bluff, standing up apparently 
three hundred feet out of the water, and almost directly in 
our path, while on our port bow a great berg, nearly half as 
big as Staten Island, and many feet higher than the other, 
made it absolutely necessary for us to go between them ; for 
with the gale which was blowing and the mountainous seas 



THE CRASH OF ICEBERGS 8/ 

which were running, and considering the rate at which the 
old girl was flying before it, any attempt to haul her up 
to weather the berg when first seen would have almost cer- 
tainly resulted in foundering, and every second of time since 
had made it more sure, so that, as I have said, it was ab- 
solutely necessary for us to pass between them if we could, 
for it having stopped snowing and being broad daylight we 
could see with dismay that the apparently ample space which 
we had at first noted between them was fast narrowing, show- 
ing that the berg was closing in on the floe ; so that it was 
merely a question of time whether there would be room for 
us to pass when we got there ; if not, the old Taujore and 
I would end our rambles there together. 

The old man had jumped out in response to Mr. Oliver's 
call and ordered the watch called at once, so that now all 
hands were on deck, even including the cook and steward 
and the latter's wife, who was stewardess. Mr. Davis went 
forward and kept the captain posted as to the situation, 
while Mr. Ohver stood near the cross-jack jack-pin ready to 
execute any orders the captain had to give. The men were 
about equally divided at the braces, so that in case of a 
hurried order there would be somebody to begin pulling at 
once. When Mr. Davis reported that the passage between 
the ice was closing up, the old man gave orders to loose the 
foresail. Half a dozen men sprang aloft and threw off the 
gaskets. Both sheets were taken to the main capstan, and 
I don't believe a foresail was ever set under more trying cir- 
cumstances. The old man now called to his wife to come 
on deck, and I knew then that he thought our chances were 
slim. I saw her when she first stepped out of the com- 
panionway ; she looked up in his face and asked him some- 
thing, to which he merely nodded in reply, and, old sailor 
as she was, I could see from where I stood, under the 
weather bulwarks, that her face became pale as death. The 



88 ON MANY SEAS 

captain led her to the lee side of the mizzenmast, passed 
the bight of a spanker brail about her, inclined his head 
suspiciously near to hers for an instant, and then, remember- 
ing himself, strode back to the weather quarter-deck, and 
was once more the alert commander. 

"Starboard ! Steady ! " came from Mr. Davis on the fore- 
castle, repeated by the captain to the men at the wheel, and 
now we were into it. The ice mountains towered up on each 
side of us, almost, it seemed, out of sight. 

"Port!" came the word from forward, and before she 
could answer to her helm the main-yard scraped against 
the side of the berg, and for an instant it seemed as if all 
the top hamper would be down about our ears. But as she 
felt her helm she sheered off and cleared herself, only to 
give another but lighter rub on the other side before the 
helmsman could meet her, so narrow had the channel already 
become. The foresail gave an ominous flap, showing that we 
had got under the lee of the ice and were becoming becalmed, 
and not yet through the rapidly narrowing channel which was 
shutting in on us like a mammoth vise. Once more came 
the word from forward. 

" Starboard ! Steady ! " and with the little way remaining 
on her the old ship glided into open water, and, looking back, 
we saw, not five minutes after clearing the berg, the most 
grand and awful sight it has ever been my fortune to wit- 
ness. Drawn irresistibly together by the same force of 
attraction that causes ships to approach each other in a 
calm, these two great ice islands coUided, not with a rapid 
onrush, to be sure, but with a slow, dignified, hardly per- 
ceptible motion that was the very ideal of majestic power. 
Being now becalmed under their lee, we were unable to 
get out of the way, and as the great ice monsters began 
to grind and tear each other, our position was not much 
more enviable than it had been ; for in the general destruc- 



THE CRASH OF ICEBERGS 89 

tion taking place so close to us, we were liable to come to 
grief yet. 

As they came in contact, the smaller but higher berg 
seemed to rise several feet out of water and, slowly rolling 
itself backwards, it gave a forward lurch as if to annihilate 
its opponent with one grand rush. In vain ; the larger 
island was too solid and too extensive to be affected in any 
way ; but the smaller, amid the thundering crash of collision, 
must have broken off a considerable portion of itself under 
water : for on recovering from the shock of the first onset, 
it took a heavy roll to the westward, and we began to fear 
that on the return roll it would crush us out of existence, or 
at least dismast us ; but it never rolled back, it went clean 
over, " turned turtle " completely, and as that part which 
had been submerged came to the surface, it rose right along- 
side, barely missing us, and although I dare say that to any 
one at a distance of a couple of miles it would have pre- 
sented the appearance of a slow and stately summersault, to 
us, within a few feet of it, it seemed as if that huge mass 
swept up out of the depths of the sea with meteoric swift- 
ness. It raised with it tons and tons of salt water, which 
came down again on us, drenching every living thing on 
board, and filling our decks to the monkey rails. 

I think it will be admitted that we had passed a pretty 
exciting morning ; so our pleasure may be imagined on dis- 
covering that the new formation presented by the capsizing 
of the berg enabled us to catch some of the air which was 
blowing so furiously the other side of it, and so gradually 
draw away from the unpleasant neighbourhood out into the 
open sea again. Captain Hurlburt took this opportunity to 
furl the foresail again while we were nearly becalmed, remark- 
ing that it was all that had saved us ; which was undoubtedly 
so, for even with its help we barely squeezed through in 
time. But now our troubles were over for a while. As we 



90 ON MANY SEAS 

gradually drew away from the ice, the breeze strengthened 
every minute, so that by eight bells all that was left to 
remind us of our early morning peril was the white gleam 
of ice far astern. 

Old Ned's comment on the morning's adventure was : 

" Nobody but a d fool would drive a ship dead before 

a live gale in a blinding snowstorm, when the wind's blow- 
ing and the sea's running so's you daresn't haul her up a 

p'int, no matter what in h is in your way." He further 

remarked that nobody but a d fool would have the 

good luck to get out of such a scrape as the old man had 
got us into. 



CHAPTER X 

Squaring Accounts with Johnson. — A Good Landfall. — 
Farewell Tanjore. — I become a " Lime-Juicer." 

Soon after this the captain hauled his wind a couple of 
points, and we knew that the world famous Horn was behind 
us. As we gradually crawled to the northward, the weather 
improved. The wind remaining fair, we " piled the muslin 
onto her," and, although we had been so long in tropical 
waters that the ship's bottom was half oyster bed and half 
hay-field, the old lady " did herself proud." She seemed 
to know that she was returning to the civilized half of the 
world again, and to be as anxious as anybody to get there ; 
for the log-line showed that she was reehng off nine and a 
half and ten knots night and day, and Old Ned felt con- 
strained to remark that the London "gals" had got hold 
of our tow-line at last. But there were still many miles of 
salt water between us and London, and lots and lots of work 
to do ; for it is on the homeward-bound passage that one 
has to hustle. The ship has to be painted inside and out, 
spars and all the bright work scraped and varnished, the 
decks holystoned until they are as white as a hound's 
tooth, the rigging rattled and tarred down, and, in fact, 
everything that the mate can think of is done to beautify 
the ship ; for it is he who gets the credit due to her condi- 
tion on arriving home from a voyage. 

There was an ordinary seaman on board by the name 
91 



92 ON MANY SEAS 

of Johnson, a German. He had been with us the whole 
voyage. He was a great, big, strapping Dutchman, as 
competent a seaman as we had, but he thought that by 
sacrificing five dollars per month and shipping as an ordinary 
instead of an able seaman, he would, to a certain extent, 
curry favour with the captain and officers and stand a better 
chance of completing the voyage, and so having a good pay- 
day ; and I don't doubt that he was right. From the very 
start Johnson had made himself particularly obnoxious to 
me, by ordering me and bossing me around, his favourite 
expression to me being : 

" Vat de h are you ? You are nothing else as a boy." 

This he would say with an intonation and an expression 
as scornful as though the epithet " boy " was synonymous 
with rattlesnake. 

Riley, although in the other watch, had not escaped 
Johnson's insolence altogether, and was about as fond of him 
as I. As we had now been on the old ship about eighteen 
months, we didn't consider ourselves to be so very far 
beneath Mr. Johnson himself in efficiency, whatever we 
might have been on leaving New York. So, after a council 
of war, it was finally concluded between Riley and me that 
we would give Johnson a chance the very next Sunday to 
apologize for his long months of abuse, and admit that, 
boys though we were, we were as good as he ; and if he 
declined to grasp the opportunity, vve'd Hck him until he'd 
wish that he had. Sunday was selected as a suitable day 
of retribution, because that is the sailorman's day of com- 
parative leisure. So, in our forenoon watch below, when I 
saw Johnson washing his clothes in a bucket under the fore- 
castle, I went under there as if to hunt for something, and 
accidently fell over against him, upsetting his bucket. He 
jumped up and began cursing me roundly, threatened to 
break my "yaw," and ordered me to go and get him another 



I BECOME A LIME-JUICER 93 

bucket of water, adding that he had a good mind to make 
me finish washing his clothes. Without paying any atten- 
tion to his orders, I said to him : " See here, Johnson, the 
voyage is pretty nearly up now. For the last eighteen 
months you have bullied and insulted and bossed me just 
about as you pleased, and now, you Dutch son of a swab, 
if you're any good, come out on deck, and one or the other 
of us will take a good licking." 

Riley was close by, for of course we didn't intend to give 
Johnson the remotest chance of escape from the punishment 
we thought he so richly deserved. Out dashed Johnson, and 
as he emerged from under the forecastle, I caught him a 
" sockdologer " square between the eyes, and when you 
remember that I was a sturdy and muscular young fellow, 
eighteen years old, with eighteen months' accumulated inju- 
ries to avenge, you may be sure that I put all the vim I had 
into that one blow, with the result that Johnson went back 
in a heap under the forecastle. We soon saw that he was 
bleeding, and I began to be scared lest I had killed him ; 
but Riley, who was made of sterner stuff, said the Dutchman 
was only " faking " to avoid punishment. So he drew a 
bucket of salt water over the side, and threw it over him. 
This brought him. to, and out he came ; but he was perfectly 
harmless, and so quietly had the whole affair passed that 
not a soul on board, with the exception of us three immedi- 
ately interested, knew anything about it. Johnson went 
below, and presumably to sleep ; but when he turned out 
at eight bells to get his dinner, he was a " sight." His nose 
was broken and swelled as big as your fist. Both eyes were 
draped in a most beautiful black and were heavily bloodshot, 
his nose had been bleeding in his sleep, and altogether he 
was indeed lovely to look upon. 

Old Ned caught sight of him, and greeted him with 
" Hullo ! who in h is that ? Hey ! when did you 



94 ON MANY SEAS 

come aboard?" To which Johnson merely answered with 
"Vat's der matter mit you, anyvay?" 

"Oh, Holy Moses," says Ned; "it's Johnson. Who's 
been doing you up? " But Johnson would give no informa- 
tion except that he fell and " hurted him." And I don't 
think that from that day to this the matter has ever been let 
out till now. 

As we approached the mouth of the Enghsh Channel, the 
weather came thick and foggy, but, the wind being fair, the 
old man ran altogether by deep-sea soundings. 

He kept full sail on her, and gave out the courses as con- 
fidently as though he had the whole Atlantic Ocean before 
him, and the mouth of the channel, with its treacherous 
currents and sunken reefs, had not yet been invented. And 
so he hung on to his canvas, much to the disapprobation of 

Old Ned, who swore that the "d old fool would pile her 

on the Irish coast and drown'd us all, jest so's to get rid of 
paying our wages." The first thing we knew, the water 
turned green, and by and bye we began to sight an occa- 
sional vessel through the fog ; for now we knew that if not 
in the channel we were pretty close to it. 

Suddenly, one forenoon, as we were sailing along about 
six or seven knots with the wind almost dead aft, there came 
a steam-whistle out of the fog, answered by our fog-horn. 
We heard it again, and in another minute a two-funnelled, 
side-wheel tugboat hove in sight through the fog. He 
hailed, found out who we w'ere, where from and bound, and 
offered to take us up to London for a certain sum ; but he 
had a Yankee to deal with, and the old man, although I 
dare say as anxious to get in as any of us, hung off; for he 
had a fair wind, though his position certainly must have been 
largely a matter of conjecture. Not a sign of land had we 
seen since the coast of Tasmania faded from our view nearly 
four months before. The Falklands, Azores, Scillys, and the 



I BECOME A LIME-JUICER 95 

Lizard, all of these prominent points from which ships en- 
deavour to obtain a new departure, we had passed without 
sighting at all, and when the fog suddenly hfted a Httle on 
our port beam, and we caught a glimpse of green fields 
dotted with white houses, it was the first sight of God's 
green earth that we had seen in nearly four months. I think 
I never saw anything so beautiful as that one minute's 
glance ; for the fog closed right in again. I think the old 
man was rather startled to find the land so close aboard ; 
for he turned instantly to the man at the wheel and quietly 
told him to "keep her off" half a point, and then, turning 
to the tugboat captain, asked him w^hat land that was. 
'' Fair Lee," came the reply ; " Fair Lee." 

Reader, take your atlas and find Fair Lee in the English 
Channel, and then think from Tasmania to Fair Lee with- 
out a sight of land. It was the best landfall I ever saw, and 
showed what sort of a sailor Captain Hurlburt was. 

After a little dickering we passed the end of the tow-line 
to the big English sea-tug, and he took us to Gravesend, 
a few miles below London, and the next day the mud pilot 
took us up to the London docks ; and here the crew all 
left, except Riley and I. We stayed aboard and helped 
Mr. Oliver by day, and went ashore in the evenings, drift- 
ing naturally into Sailor Town. We didn't see very much 
of London on this trip, and what we did see was not par- 
ticularly praiseworthy ; in fact, it was rather the reverse. 

While cruising in the Ratchffe Highway one evening, who 
should we come across but Old Ned. He was in company 
with another old Yankee ''barnacle back" hke himself, 
and they were both in the condition in which sailors are 
apt to be when homeward bound, i.e. before their money 
is all spent ; for when their money is gone and they are 
looking for another ship, then they are said to be outward 
bound, and most English sailor boarding-houses and saloons. 



g6 ON MANY SEAS 

or " publics " as they are called, have a certain corner of the 
sitting-room which by common consent is relegated to the 
use of the impecunious "outward-bounders" and is dubbed 
the "outward-bound corner," and towards this corner and 
its unfortunate occupants the purse-proud " homeward- 
bounder " casts occasionally a contemptuous glance, al- 
though he knows full well that it will be only a matter 
of a week or ten days before he himself will be sitting 
there. But to resume. 

Old Ned was in that pecuhar stage of inebriety when 
all the world was his particular friend. He shook our 
hands and slapped us on our backs, and swore to the other 
old turtle that we were the two best and smartest boys he 
had ever seen. " None of your lubberly canvas-pants 
lemon-pelters," said he, " but good smart New York Yankee 
boys." To all of which the other old shell-back blinked his 
two little red eyes and answered, " Bet yer bloody life ! " as 
he reeled and teetered about, like a billy-goat in a short 
chopping head sea. Riley asked Ned if he had thought of 
shipping again yet, and he said he had a ship picked out, 
— the Hamlin, of fifteen hundred tons, for Cardiff, to take 
patent fuel to Bombay. After a little more talk we left 
them and started to go aboard, and on the way Riley pro- 
posed that we leave the Tatij'ore and join the Hamlin as 
ordinary seamen. I didn't exactly care to leave the old 
ship. It seemed like cutting the last tie that bound me to 
home and country ; for the Hamlin, though an American, 
had during the Civil War gone under the English flag for 
security from the Alabama and her sisters, as did hundreds 
of others at that time, so that she was, to all intents and 
purposes, a "lime-juicer." 

Riley pointed out to me that it was a shame for us to go 
to sea for five dollars a month, when as ordinary seamen we 
could get two pounds in English ships, or twenty dollars in 



I BECOME A LIME-JUICER 97 

American. So we finally agreed on a compromise to this 
effect, — that to-morrow evening we would go aft and strike 
the old man for a raise of pay to ten dollars per month, and 
if he wouldn't give it, we would ask leave to go ashore the 
following day and look for a ship. This programme we 
carried out, and while the old man admitted that perhaps 
we might be worth more than five dollars a month now, 
yet when we first came on board we were not worth any- 
thing, so that he couldn't afford to pay us any more now ; 
but he gave us permission to go ashore the next day and 
look for a ship, thinking that all we wanted was a run 
around the city. But in that he was mistaken ; for the next 
morning we dressed up and went directly aboard the Hain- 
Im, which lay some distance off, in the Victoria docks ; and 
Captain Burbank, an old man about seventy, captain and 
owner, shipped us as " ordinary seamen at two pounds per 
month, from London to Cardiff (Wales), thence to Bom- 
bay, thence to such port or ports in India, China, Australia, 
Africa, North or South America as business may require, 
and back to a final port of discharge in the United Kingdom 
or on the Continent between Brest and the Elbe. Voyage 
not to exceed three years. Rations to consist of i^ lbs. 
beef and \ lb. flour, or | lb. of pork and \ pint of pease 
and I lb. of biscuit, and 3 quarts of water daily. Rice at 
the captain's option. Lime juice and vinegar according 
to the act. 

NO GROG ALLOWED." 

On signing these shipping articles, I became what is 
regarded by American sailors as about the most despicable 
being afloat, that is, a " British tar," or, as Yankees say, a 
"lime-juicer,"^ or "lemonader," or " lemon-pelter," or just 

1 By act of Parliament, English ships are required to provide lime juice 
as a preventive of scurvy ; whence these nicknames. 
H 



98 ON MANY SEAS 

simply a " pelter." On returning to the Tafijore that even- 
ing, we again went aft and notified Captain Hurlburt of our 
action, whereat he was very much surprised ; said he didn't 
think we meant to leave him, but if we were bound to go 
we should come aft in about an hour and he would have 
our accounts made up and pay us off. So, in due season, 
aft we went again, and were invited into the after cabin, the 
captain's private apartment, and his wife kindly expressed 
her regrets at our leaving them after having been so long 
shipmates, and presented each of us with a sovereign and a 
pair of woollen socks of her own knitting. The captain paid 
us what we had coming, — not much, for five dollars per 
month does not pile up very fast, especially if you have to 
clothe yourself and draw pocket money out of it. He then 
gave us some advice which I have no doubt was very good, 
as the advice which old fellows are so fond of giving to young 
fellows is always supposed to be, and, bidding him and his 
wife good-bye, we went forward and packed our clothes, 
and the next morning we bade good-bye to the old Tanjore 
for ever, and I have never laid eyes on her from that day to 
this. 

I turned back as I was leaving the dock, and took a part- 
ing look at the Hindoo figure-head, whose gorgeous robes 
of white and gold had captivated me nearly two years before 
in New York. A couple of years after this she returned to 
New York, and my father, seeing her reported, boarded her 
down the bay ; but all that Captain Hurlburt could tell him 
was that I had left him two years before in London. 



CHAPTER XI 

A Real " Old Man." — A Channel Pilot. — Wrecked on 
Land's End. — English Hospitality. 

Riley and I went aboard the Hamliji. She was an old 
ship, and her captain was an old man. As she was not quite 
ready to sail, we were allowed to go ashore, with orders to 
be aboard next morning at tide time ; but we made up our 
bunks in the forecastle and stayed aboard that night. Hav- 
ing some money, we went ashore next day and bought 
ourselves good sea outfits, — new sea-boots and oilskins, 
plenty of thick flannel underwear and stockings. I also 
bought me a new chest, — a fine one ! dark-blue body with 
black battens. I had never owned a chest before, and I 
now began to feel that I was indeed a sailor. By the time 
we had spent our money, we had each acquired a first-class 
outfit for a long voyage. 

The crew came aboard the next morning, and we hauled 
into the basin to be ready to go out at high tide. For the 
information of American readers, I may explain here that 
the rise and fall of the tide on the British coast is so great 
that it is necessary to build great docks where the water can 
be retained at high tide. All outgoing craft are hauled 
into a basin near the gates, which are opened at slack high 
water to let them out, and after they are gone inward- 
bound vessels are hauled in. In a great port like London, 
therefore, the brief period while the gates can be safely kept 

99 



lOO ON MANY SEAS 

open is a busy time for all hands. On the American coast 
the tidal movement is comparatively insignificant, and ves- 
sels are generally moored alongside the piers, where they 
rise and fall with the tide. 

The tug was ready for us, and away we went down the 
Thames in ballast, outward bound again. We soon found 
that the crew had shipped for three pounds a month, that 
they had received a month's wages in advance, and not a 
man of them intended to go any further than Cardiff in her. 
They had signed articles for the same voyage with Riley and 
me ; still it was understood that they were merely " run- 
ners," that is, shipped for the run to Cardiff; and they 
were a fine lot. Old Ned declared that they were " the 
Takings and scrapings of Hell, Hackney, and Newgate." 
We took with us from London a " channel pilot," who was 
to take her all the way round to Cardiff. A big, bluff, 
typical Briton he was ; and during the six weeks that he 
was aboard, I do not know when he slept, for I could never 
find any one who had seen the quarter-deck for a moment 
unoccupied by his burly form. Clad from head to foot in 
oilskins, — for it rained incessantly, — he tramped that 
quarter-deck night and day, apparently never tired. I never 
saw him so much as lean against the rail for a moment's 
rest. 

Always on the alert, he tacked that ship every four hours 
during the dreary six weeks' beat down channel against a 
southwest gale, which was as steady as the trade-wind itself. 
I do not remember a more miserable time in all my experi- 
ence than those six, long, cold, wet weeks, with never a full 
watch below ; for we could always count on at least half an 
hour lost every watch in tacking. 

Our hands became raw and bleeding from so much pull- 
ing on wet ropes. Our clothes all became soaked, for of 
course there was no chance to dry anything, and the fore- 



WRECKED ON LAND'S END lOI 

castle leaked so that our bedding was drenched, so that to 
use a nautical expression we turned in wet and turned out 
steaming ; and to make matters worse for some of us, the 
crew, who were all thieves and scalawags, had no clothes of 
their own and didn't hesitate a moment to help themselves 
to anything that they could get hold of. Riley and I, hav- 
ing a pretty good outfit, became lawful prey to them. Oil- 
skins and sea-boots were in great demand among these 
"bummers," and if when called to go on watch you found 
your clothes anywhere you were in luck. 

One night, during the middle watch, I was awakened by 
a man kicking the lid off my new chest. This was about the 
last straw, and grabbing my sheath-knife, I jumped from 
my bunk and started for him. 

" Hold on, young feller," said he ; " the ship's ashore and 
I might as well have some of these good clothes as to let 
them go drifting out into the western ocean." And sure 
enough, just then she came down with a solid thump that 
nearly threw us both to the deck. 

By this time all hands were out, and we found that the 
watch were getting yard-arm and stay-tackles aloft to hoist 
out the long-boat. All halyards had been let fly, sheets 
were let go, and not a brace having been touched, the yards 
were swinging wildly about, and the canvas was flapping hke 
broadsides from a man-of-war. All ropes were flying about 
the decks ; the officers were yelling themselves hoarse trying 
to get the boats out ; it was as dark as pitch, so foggy that, 
had it been daylight, you could hardly have seen the length 
of your nose. The rain was pouring in torrents and it was 
bitterly cold. 

What little semblance of authority the officers had been 
able to maintain up to this time now disappeared entirely, 
and with each heave of the sea the poor old ship came 
down with a bang on the rocks. It seemed as if the shocks 



102 ON MANY SEAS 

must jerk the spars clean out of her and throw them over 
the bow. 

We finally got the long-boat hoisted high enough so that, 
by slacking away on the stay-tackle and hauling on the yard- 
arm, we could get her over the side. Some one thought to 
ask the boatswain if the plug was in her. 

" I don't know," said he ; "I sent the carpenter half an 
hour ago to make a plug for her and haven't seen him since. 
Where is he, anyway? Ca-r-p-e-n-ter! " he shouted. 

" Vat you vant? " said a voice from somewhere overhead. 

"Where are you? Bring me a plug for the long-boat !" 
shouted the boatswain. 

" Here I am in de boat, and de ploog is all right," said 
the carpenter. 

" Come out o' that boat, you Dutch son of a shark," said 
the boatswain, " and stay out till the white men get in," and 
with that he ran up the main rigging and grabbed the poor 
Dutchman by the shoulders and slatted him out of the 
boat and down on the deck, flat on his back, where he was 
received by a volunteer committee of the " runners," who 
thumped and cursed him to their heart's content. 

Pandemonium reigned supreme. I heard the second 
mate call for another hand to lay aft and help get the 
quarter-boat over, and extricating myself with some diffi- 
culty from the tangle of ropes, "runners," and carpenter on 
the main deck,' I scrambled aft. As I passed around abaft 
the house, she brought her stern down like a million-ton 
pile-driver. The wheel went hard a starboard with the 
velocity of a buzz-saw, and the sudden stoppage proving too 
much for it, it flew all to pieces. This incident impressed 
on my mind most emphatically the fact that the old ship 
was fast becoming a wreck. I jumped to leeward, where 
the second mate and a couple of hands were trying to get 
the quarter-boat out, and helped them. When we got her 



WRECKED ON LAND'S END I03 

in the davits and swung outboard, the second mate told an- 
other man and me to get in and bear her off from the side 
as they lowered, and unhook the tackles. It was a mighty 
risky job getting that boat into the water in the dark ; for, 
besides the rolling and pitching of the old ship herself, 
there was quite a heavy sea running, and consequently 
before she was half lowered, and while we were doing our 
level best to keep her from being stove against the ship's 
sides by the heavy rolling, a big sea came up under her, 
raising her suddenly five or six feet in the air, and of course 
slacking the tackles to that extent, and then as suddenly 
dropped from under her, allowing her to fall a like distance 
until brought up standing by the tackles. It was a busy job. 
The first time she went down I nearly fell overboard. The 
next time she dropped, the hook of the block at my end 
broke and let her bow drop into the sea ; but as the wind 
and seas were aft, and as the stern was nearly lowered, no 
damage was done ; at the same time I heard my companion 
in the stern give an awful yell, then another, then silence. 
I shouted wildly for some one to throw me a rope's end, 
and soon down came the end of a topsail brace ; but it was 
short, so short that when she dropped into the trough of 
the sea, or when the old hooker rolled away from me, I 
was obliged to stand on her very nose and hang on to the 
bare end with my arm extended to its very utmost. 

I was scared, awfully scared ; for should the boat fall only 
an inch or two lower than usual, or should the combined 
roll of the ship and heave of the sea cause me to part com- 
pany with either the boat or the rope, what should I do? 
If I hung on to the rope and the boat went from under me, 
it vvould be but a minute or two until, exhausted, I would 
drop into the sea ; and should I let go the rope and take 
my chances in the boat, even if I escaped being crushed 
under the ship's counter, which was not very likely, I should 



104 ON MANY SEAS 

most certainly be again shipwrecked, and this time fatally, 
on the neighbouring rocks. I shouted loudly to my com- 
panion in the stern to come forward and help me, but I got 
no answer ; for, poor fellow, he had made his last " run " and 
was never again seen. It was supposed that he fell over- 
board, as I came so near doing while bearing off from the 
ship's side. 

It seemed as if I hung on to that short rope for hours, 
shouting with all my might for more rope. At last a head 
and lantern appeared over the rail ; it seemed to me nearly 
half a mile above me. " Hey, boy, take this lantern ; look 
out for it," said the second mate's voice. 

" Gimme more slack on this rope ! " I yelled in despera- 
tion. 

"Hey?" 

" Gimme more slack on this rope ! I can't hang on any 
longer ! " 

"Oh, I can't hear what you say ; look out for this lantern, 
and I'll send you down a bag of bread, a breaker of water, 
and a compass," said he, as he began to lower the lantern 
down to me. 

" Come, git a holt o' that lantern, one of you ; what in 

h 's the matter with you? " By this time the lantern was 

low enough so that he caught sight of me and saw the pre- 
dicament that I was in, and then he went and slacked the 
rope for me. 

What a godsend that was ! I made it fast in the ring 
in her nose, and then went aft to see what had become 
of my shipmate, but there was no one there ; so I unhooked 
the stern tackle, and then gave my. attention to the stuff 
they sent down. After the boat was victualled and equipped, 
they sent the old man down in a bowline ; after him came 
the big English channel pilot, the man who was to blame 
for the whole thing, for it was he who kept her away too 



WRECKED ON LAND'S END 105 

soon. Before she was clear of the Land's End, he checked 
in the yards, and gave the hehnsman a course that ran her 
plumb on the top of the reef that extends from one to the 
other of two massive rocks directly off the Land's End of 
England, called the Brisons. 

After the pilot came the second mate and two men, mak- 
ing six of us, all told. I reported my missing companion, 
but nobody knew whether he had returned to the deck and 
gone in the long-boat, or not ; but the question was settled 
next day, for he alone of all the crew failed to say " here " 
at muster roll-call. 

When all were aboard and seated, I let go the rope's end, 
and we shoved her off from the side of the wreck with our 
oars, noticing at the same time lots of pieces of planking 
and spHnters which had floated up from her bottom, which 
was being ground out of her on the rocks. And again I 
realized that, sure enough, the old ship was a hopeless 
wreck. 

We pulled around the stern to the other side, where the 
long-boat lay with all the rest of the crew in her. As soon 
as we came within ear-shot of her, it was evident that a row- 
was in progress ; for such a hullabaloo I never heard. It 
seems, as we found out afterwards, the cook had several 
pounds in gold and silver in a little bag round his neck. 
Some of the "runners" found it out and they "downed" 
him in the overcrowded boat, nearly upsetting her, and 
robbed him of it, and he, being about the same kind as 
themselves, produced a long carving knife, which he had 
evidently taken along for the purpose of defending his prop- 
erty, and swore he would cut every piratical throat among 
them. This led to further disturbance ; for whether these 
gentle mariners objected to being alluded to as pirates, or 
whether they disliked the prospect of having their throats 
cut, I don't know, but anyway they all piled on to the cook 



I06 ON MANY SEAS 

again, disarmed him, and were thumping the hfe out of him, 
when we came alongside. 

" Mr. Richards," said the pilot. 

" Sir," said the mate, who had charge of the long-boat, 
and was sitting unconcernedly in the stern-sheets while the 
" runners " were operating on the cook. 

" You'd best get away as soon as possible. Her spars are 
liable to go any minute, as her bottom must be pretty well 
ground out of her. We'll try and find a landing. We'll show 
this lantern so that you can follow us," said the pilot. 

"All right," said the mate; "but if you don't make any 
better fist piloting the boats than you did the ship, I don't 
care to follow you too close." 

To this left-handed compliment the pilot made no answer, 
but ordered us to give way ; the old man himself sitting 
perfectly silent in the stern-sheets, thinking no doubt of the 
fate of the ship which he had sailed so many years. Poor 
old man ! it was a sad blow to him. The next day I saw 
him standing looking at her from the top of a high bluff, and 
his poor old eyes filled with tears, as he remarked to the 
pilot, " She was a good ship and she's been my home for 
twenty-five years." 

We pulled slowly through the fog, the long-boat following. 
Every little while we stopped rowing to listen for breakers, 
or any sound that would indicate the direction of the land. 

During one of those intervals, the bow-oarsman said he 
heard a boat, evidently a man-of-war's by the stroke. 

" It's the long-boat you hear," said the second mate. 

" No, it ain't," said the pilot. " It's the coast-guards " ; and 
so it was ; for in another moment a dull glare of light in the 
fog, dead ahead, brought the warning hail from the pilot. 

" Boat ahoy ! " and we both backed water together as we 
ranged alongside of the Sennen Cove life-boat. 
;; Information was exchanged ; and they told us that the 



WRECKED ON LAND'S END lO/ 

coast-guard on duty on a high bluff near where the wreck 
lay, in patrolling his post, glanced toward the Brisons every 
time he turned, at the end of his beat. Sometimes he 
could see them through the fog, and again he could not. 
Finally, shortly after twelve o'clock, as the fog thinned a 
bit, he noticed a something there that, to use his own words, 
" wasn't there before." He knew it couldn't possibly be 
anything but a big ship on the Brisons ; and away he went, 
post-haste, to the station, and gave the alarm. 

The coast-guard gave us our course to the landing, and 
then went on, to see if the long-boat needed any assistance, 
which, however, she did not ; for, the cook's business having 
been attended to, the crew had been carefully following our 
light. After leaving the life-boat, a short pull brought us 
to a small pier, in a landlocked cove. Here we landed, 
hauHng our boat v/ell up, and started to climb the precipitous 
path leading to the little, straggling, fishing village of Sennen 
Cove. The long-boat's crew soon joined us ; and I guess 
the little place never had so many people in it before. But 
alas, for EngUsh hospitality ! I had always supposed that 
shipwrecked seamen had a valid claim on the sympathies 
of all civihzed people. But although the inhabitants of the 
little village were all up and staring at us from their doorways, 
and could certainly see what a cold, wet, and forlorn lot we 
were, yet they never offered us the least shelter from the 
pitiless storm, but shut their doors in our faces, and went 
back to their warm beds, leaving us to stand about the 
deserted street, or shelter ourselves as best we might, under 
the lee of their miserable huts. The walls of these huts 
were about six feet high, built of stone, and over all a high, 
round roof of thatch, about two feet thick, which very much 
resembled a haystack, or the African huts that you see por- 
trayed in the magazines and illustrated papers. The natives 
were English, undoubtedly ; but we could no more under- 



I08 ON MANY SEAS 

stand them than we could Fiji islanders, and had to get the 
coast-guards, who were all ex-man-of-war's men, to interpret 
for us. Old Ned said that if he had some glass beads or 
red calico, he'd " buy the whole d — d outfit." 

The captain, mate, and pilot went up to the coast-guard 
station, where there was a good fire, and passed the night 
under cover. 

In the morning we were about played out, — tired, wet, 
cold, and, oh ! so hungry, for the salt air gives one a splendid 
appetite. Some of the boys went down to the boat and 
opened the bag of hard bread ; but although it was guar- 
anteed to be water, fire, and bomb proof, yet it got a pretty 
good soaking coming ashore, in the rain and salt sprays 
alternately, so that although the interior of each biscuit 
resembled in texture a thin disc of glass or virgin flint, and 
might have proved to be very nutritious, it was disguised, 
or, if you please, upholstered, with pulp on each side, flav- 
oured with that peculiar, salt, bitter taste characteristic of 
sea-brine. We decided by a standingYO\.t to deny ourselves 
the luxury of soaked bread for breakfast. 

Time wore on, and as no breakfast bell rang for us, some 
of the fellows volunteered to act as spies and find out if the 
old man and his crowd were faring any better than we, and 
if so, to make a demand for something to eat. They came 
back and reported that the afterguards were living high, 
up at the coast-guard station ; so old Ned went up to see 
the captain, and told him we were hungry. He said he 
wouldn't mention the matter, only we were supposed to be 
in a civilized country. " If we were on a half-tide rock, 
out in the middle of the ocean," said he, " I'd scrape up 
a few barnacles and eat them ; but in England we must 
have grub, or we'll rake this blamed village fore and aft." 
The old man made some arrangements whereby, along in 
the afternoon, we were provided with some coffee and bread, 



WRECKED ON LAND'S END 109 

about half enough. We got no more to eat that day ; but 
at night we were housed in various barns and empty build- 
ings, so that most of us got a little sleep. The gang who 
had robbed the cook of course managed to get liquor, and 
were drunk, and fighting and yelling about the place all day 
and late into the night. 



CHAPTER XII 

Britannia rules the Waves. — Wrecked again. — Jack 
ASHORE IN London. — Almena. 

The next day dawned bright and clear, but with a strong 
westerly wind blowing, which sent a pretty heavy sea into 
the bay. As we crawled out of the various holes and corners 
where we had found shelter, we naturally looked first toward 
the ship. There she lay, a mere hulk, pounding away on 
the rocks, not a stick standing in her. We got another 
ration of coffee and bread in the same place as before, and 
after breakfast, the wind having hauled off-shore and fallen 
comparatively light, the boatswain asked the captain to allow 
him to take the quarter-boat and go off to the wreck and 
save some of his effects. The captain gave him permission, 
and he called for a crew. Riley and I volunteered, as we 
hated to lose all our good clothes ; so did the Dutch car- 
penter, as he wanted to save his tools ; one more, and we 
had a full crew, four oars and the boatswain to steer. 

As we shoved off, they all shouted after us to bring off 
this and that which they wanted. 

"Oh, certainly," said the boatswain; "give your orders, 
gentlemen ; you were not so free, though, to volunteer for 
this three-mile pull ; we'll fetch off what we can get of our 
own, and then you can have the boat yourselves." 

So we pulled off alongside without any trouble ; but when 
we got out there the tide was so low and the sea ran so high 

no 



ALMENA'S BOARDING-HOUSE III 

over the reef, that the only place we could approach her was 
right under the stern, and as the stern was some thirty feet 
above the water's edge, we might as well have remained 
ashore for all the good we could do there. A couple of 
coast-guards who were aboard and saw us coming, came to 
the taffrail and told us it was impossible to get aboard. We 
asked them to lower down our clothes-bags to us ; but they 
said it was impossible, as the wreck of the mainmast lay on 
the deck-house and had smashed it in. The fact was that 
they wanted whatever could be saved for themselves ; for the 
Englishman is a born wrecker, and considers himself the 
lawful heir of the sea and its treasures. 

In vain the carpenter begged them to send down " mine 
toogle kist." They at last walked away from the taffrail 
altogether, and as there was no use in our staying there, we 
headed our boat for the cove again, as poor as when we 
set out. 

We now noticed that the wind had freshened a good bit, 
and the heavy westerly sea that was still running against it 
made hard work for such a poor crew as we had. Neither 
Riley nor I had seen much boat's service, although we 
could keep stroke fairly well. The other fellow was hardly 
any good at all, and as for the carpenter, he was a positive 
hindrance. He had the stroke-oar, as being the lightest, 
and was continually catching crabs, and slewing the boat off 
her course ; and then he would turn round and growl at me 
in his broken English, because, as the natural result of his 
own clumsiness, I would hit him a resounding bump in the 
back of the head with the butt of my oar. 

We pulled and tugged away for about an hour, until we 
were all pretty well tired out and wet through with the flying 
sprays ; but it became evident at last that we were not gain- 
ing an inch, so we held a council of war and agreed to head 
her for a little strip of sandy beach that we could see away 



112 ON MANY SEAS 

down on the lee side of the bay. It was at the foot of 
what appeared to be a high, perpendicular cliff; but as there 
was no alternative, we were obliged to beach her there and 
trust to luck to find a way to scale the cliff afterwards. So 
the helm was put up, and we headed her for the beach. 

The boatswain did not like to trust the carpenter with an 
oar in the breakers, on account of his crab-catching pro- 
clivities, and asked him if he could steer. He said he 
could, and started on a long, rambling yarn in his broken 
English, about how he had steered boats in Batavia. 

" Well, never mind," said the boatswain ; " you can tell 
us that to-morrow. Here, take hold of this bat, and do you 
see that dark patch on the beach there?" 

" Sure," says the carpenter. 

" Well, you keep her right straight for that, and never 
mind looking over your shoulder," said he, as he saw the 
carpenter glancing apprehensively at the huge rollers that 
were coming for us ; for it was now blowing half a gale 
again. 

The boatswain took the carpenter's oar and told us all to 
be ready to pull with a will when he gave the word, and 
pull we did, for dear life. We were getting along finely 
until the sea, on whose crest we were riding at express-train 
speed, began to break, and considerable water slapped into 
the boat. At the critical moment the blasted Dutch carpen- 
ter failed us. With a yell of " Ow Yasus," he dropped the 
tiller for an instant and grabbed the gunwales of the boat 
with both hands, thinking, I suppose, that he was a "goner." 
The language which the boatswain used to that poor for- 
eigner, although highly appropriate to the occasion, I will 
omit. It had the desired effect, however, for he once more 
grasped the tiller ; but it was too late to avert the inevitable 
catastrophe. In a second the keel grazed the bottom, the 
boat whirled broadside on and rolled over quicker than light- 



ALMENA'S BOARDING-HOUSE 113 

ning. Of course we were all thrown out sprawling and 
washed about by the surf like so many bundles of old clothes. 
Eventually we all scrambled ashore, and to our great sur- 
prise found the beach crowded with people, although there 
wasn't a human being in sight when we headed our boat 
for the surf, and I don't know where they all came from ; 
for when we afterwards arrived at the top of the bluff only 
one of the shanties pertaining to the country was in sight. 
It would seem as if, like marine vultures, scenting wreck 
and disaster, even on a small scale, they had swooped down 
on us out of a clear sky; and do you think they offered to 
help us? Not a bit of it. They just stood there stolidly, 
looking on as we barely saved ourselves from drowning, 
talking to each other in their unintelligible gibberish. 
After we had regained our senses somewhat, and all hands 
had taken turns cursing the carpenter as the cause of our 
trouble, we started to scale the bluff. " Hold on a minute, 
boys," said the boatswain; "let's fix the boat so she won't 
be any good to these hogs." So we got big rocks, and as 
she lay there bottom up we stove in her bottom and sides 
until, as the saying goes, " she wouldn't hold cordwood 
crossways." 

Then, wishing the " blarsted British wreckers " luck with 
their prize, which, however, as it was spoken in ordinary 
English, they could not possibly understand, we proceeded 
by a steep, zigzag path, which we found up the bluff, and 
so back to Sennen Cove, where, for a time, we were the 
butt of all hands. 

By and bye word began to float around that the " Fisher- 
men's Society," an organization that looks after the welfare 
of shipwrecked sailors in England, was going to send us 
back to London, and about two o'clock in the afternoon 
the captain sent us word to go with the bearer of the mes- 
sage, who would conduct us to a couple of wagons which 
I 



114 ON MANY SEAS 

would take us to Penzance, on our way back to civilization. 
At the foot of the hill, we found a couple of open carts 
without any sideboards, seats, or even enough stakes to hold 
on by. However, we climbed in, or rather on, to them, and 
away we went. Before we got to the top of the first hill, the 
starboard after wheel of the cart on which, among others, 
Riley and the boatswain and I were passengers, collapsed, 
and we got off and got a fence rail and lashed it to her in 
such a way that the axle rested on it and the after end 
dragged on the ground. When we got it fixed and started 
again, the boatswain looked at Riley and me and asked, 
"Who is the Jonah? Is it one of you fellows, or is it me?" 
We told him we didn't think it could be either of us, as we 
had always had good luck before ; so he said he guessed it 
must be himself 

Arrived at Penzance, the treatment we received was the 
very opposite of that which the Sennen Cove savages had 
given us. Here we were lionized as we thought we ought 
to have been all along, for were we not shipwrecked mari- 
ners, entitled to be hailed as "poor fellows," and asked by 
a sympathizing community, "what we would have "? — cer- 
tainly ; and we told them what we would have, and we had 
it so plentifully that I dare say some of them look back to 
that evening in Penzance as an occasion to be marked with 
a white stone, even to this day. 

That evening a gentleman, representing the Fishermen's 
Society, took us in charge and got us beds in different parts 
of the town ; and that was the first time since leaving 
London that we had slept dry, warm, and as long as we 
wanted to. 

The next morning we were given our choice between 
Liverpool and London. Riley and I chose the latter ; I 
suppose for the simple reason that we had been there once 
before. Old Ned and the boatswain were of like mind. 



ALMENA'S BOARDING-HOUSE II5 

with a few others ; most of the crew, however, preferred 
Liverpool. 

We took passage in a third-class English carriage, but the 
sympathetic residents of Penzance would not allow us to 
leave their truly hospitable town dry ; consequently the boys 
were in good humour and passed the time by singing sea- 
songs, " shanties," ^ and the popular ditties of the day. 

The boatswain, who had what all boatswains should have, 
a magnificent voice, led the singing most of the time ; and 
an old lady who sat in the seat behind him, leaned over and 
said with a pious smirk : " You men sing very nicely. Won't 
you please sing a hymn for me which I feel sure you all 
know, ' Nearer my God to thee ' ? " 

" Madam," said the boatswain, " I hope you will excuse 
us. We are shipwrecked mariners who have been drifting 
about in open boats in the Western Ocean for I don't know 
how long, without a drop of water to drink, or a mouthful of 
grub to eat. During that long and trying period, madam, I 
leave it to you, is it not likely that we should pass our time 
continually praying and singing hymns? Such being the 
case, madam, you will, I hope, excuse us from singing any 
more hymns just now." 

" Good gracious ! " exclaimed the old lady as the boat- 
swain struck up " John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in 
the grave." 

The boatswain had been given a small sum of money to 
pay our cab hire in London ; so when we arrived at Padding- 
ton station we took two cabs, and as we were all consigned 
to the Wells Street Sailors' Home, our cab at least was 
ordered to drive there. During the trip up from Penzance 
Old Ned had agreed to take Riley to his boarding-house, 
which he said was a good one ; and one of the other fellows 

1" Shanty" is the English-speaking sailor's rendering of the French 

ckante. 



Il6 • ON MANY SEAS 

had agreed to take me to his, for as Riley and I had gone 
directly from the Taiijore to the Hamliji we had not had 
any boarding-house in London, and boarding-house keepers 
are not looking for shipwrecked sailors with neither money 
nor clothes. And though we had an order from the Fisher- 
men's Society which entitled us all to admission to Wells 
Street Sailors' Home, yet the old-timers advised us not to 
go there. 

They said that what we wanted was a good boarding- 
house ; so when our driver got off and knocked at the door, 
for it was late at night, the night porter opened the door 
about an inch, took in the order, and after reading it opened 
the door again, a Httle bit wider this time, and said, '' Well, 
is anybody coming in here?" Nobody made any move- 
ment, so he slammed the door shut again, and as our 
" cabby " was cUmbing into his seat again the fellow who 
had promised to take me to his good boarding-house turned 
to me and said, "Why don't you go in here, boy? You 
haven't got any boarding-house, have you?" 

Thinking he must have repented of his offer, I said I 
guessed I would, and jumped out in the pouring rain. As 
I did so the cab drove off. I ran up the steps and pounded 
on the door. Again the porter opened it and said, " Well, 
what do you want?" I said I wanted to come in. "I 
s'pose so," said he. " Who might you be, anyway, me 
Lord?" I told him I was one of the shipwrecked crew 
who had just stopped at the door with an order for admis- 
sion from the Fishermen's Society. 

"That yarn won't do, my covey," said he. "It's too 
blooming thin ; go and try it somewhere else," and he 
slammed the door in my face. I went over to the other 
side of the street and stood in a doorway trying to get a 
Httle shelter from the pitiless rain. A policeman came 
along and ordered me to move on, and I moved out into 



ALMENA'S BOARDING-HOUSE 11/ 

the full downpour again ; and as I trudged along, drenched 
to the skin and half frozen, I remembered the question the 
boatswain had asked on the cart, "Who is the Jonah?" 
and I was forced to acknowledge to myself that I must 
be he ; for surely every man of that whole ship's company 
would consider himself most unfortunate, but I was more so 
than any of them. I was in the long six weeks' beat down 
channel ; I was in the wreck on the Brisons. Riley was the 
only other member of the crew whose loss was equal to mine 
on that occasion. I was wrecked the next day in the boat, 
and again the same day on the cart, and here I was now, 
after having been a participant in all the disasters that had 
befallen my shipmates, stranded at midnight in London 
without a cent of money, only the clothes that I stood in, — 
and they were of the poorest that my outfit contained, — and 
not knowing where I could obtain shelter from the storm, to 
say nothing of a place to lay my head. I tramped about in 
the rain and slush for a couple of hours, getting more and 
more desperate every minute. By and bye a couple of 
figures came shuffling along towards me with heads bowed 
to the storm and coat-collars turned up, and as they were 
passing me I thought one of them looked famihar, and in 
desperation I shouted, " Hey, fellers ! " 

The one nearest to me looked up sideways and remarked, 
"Why, it's the boy. Hey, boy, what are ye doin' 'ere?" I 
told them how I came to be adrift like that, and they said it 
was " a bloomin' shyme." 

Finally they agreed to take me down to their boarding- 
house and see if they could get me in there. And how 
gladly I went with them ! 

We went down to Ratchffe Highway and round the corner 
into Ship Alley, and there in a little dingy hole was the 
boarding-house, kept by a German lady, Almena by name. 
She was a partially reformed denizen of the Highway, who 



Il8 ON MANY SEAS 

had taken to herself a Norwegian sailor for a consort, and 
opened a sailors' boarding-house. When we entered she 
was entertaining a select party of sailors and their sweet- 
hearts with a loud-mouthed lecture in praise of her own 
good qualities, while her right hand grasped a quart pewter 
pot of 'arf an' 'arf. 

Catching sight of me, she screeched out, "Veil, who is 
dis ; vat blooming tramp are you bringing to me, hey?" 
The men explained that I was their shipmate and had no 
place to go to, so they brought me there. " I don't vant 
him ; I got bums enough now," said the virago. " Let him 
go to his own boardin'-'ouse. Vere dit you boarded ven 
you vas in London before, young feller?" 

I told her that I didn't board anywhere, but had gone 
directly from one ship to another. 

" Oh yes," said she, " you are von of dem schmard fellers 
vat don't shbend no money in a boardin'-'ouse ; and den 
ven you gits casted avay and don't got no money, and no 
clo's, and no blace to shtay, den you comes by Almena.. 
Almena shall keep you, hey? I dink not. I don't vant 
you. Go vere you belongs. Go on board anudder sheep ; 
den you don't got no more board to pay, ain't it? " 

"All right," I said ; " I'll go " ; and out I went into the 
storm again. 

While I stood at the corner of the Highway in the rain, 
chewing the cud of bitter fancies, one of my shipmates came 
out and called me back again. 

It seems that after I left they commenced to upbraid 
Almena for her meanness in turning me out in such a night, 
and she of course tried to justify herself on the score of 
business. As the discussion waxed warm, one of the sailors 
applied an epithet to her, which, however honestly earned, 
she dechned to accept ; and retorted by a knock-down 
argument with the pewter pot. Her consort took up the 



ALMENA'S BOARDING-HOUSE II9 

fight, and my other shipmates also sailed in ; and the two 
sailors proving too much for the hotel firm, a truce was 
called, and Almena asked them, "Vat you vant anyvay?" 

" You turned our shipmate out in the storm, you flaming 
Dutch rip," said one of them. " Will you take him in now? " 

" Yes, yes, mine Gott ! Git off mine stomach and let me 
up," said Almena. 

And so it caaie about that at last I was housed. 



CHAPTER XIII 

A Welsh Brig. — St. Lucia. — Riley and I fight the 
Mate. — Blind Justice. — Sentenced for Mutiny. 

Next day I met Riley, and we started at once to look for 
a ship, with the result that in a few days we shipped as ordi- 
nary seamen in the Welsh brig Isabel, of New Quay, bound 
to St. Lucia in the West Indies. With the exception of the 
cook, who was a mulatto hailing from St. Kitts, and our- 
selves, the whole crew were Welsh. We soon found out 
that, not being Welshmen, we were " no good." 

The captain, a short, square-built fellow by the name of 
Jones, was a typical Welshman. 

Sundays, after we got into the fine weather, he was accus- 
tomed to sit in the cabin in plain sight of his telltale com- 
pass, with the skylight open and a glass of Jamaica rum at 
hand, and read the Welsh Bible in such a loud voice that 
he would keep the watch below awake for hours, stopping 
occasionally to curse the man at the wheel for being off his 
course. One of the crew, who was something of a joker, 
was at the wheel one day as we were running the trades 
down with topmast and lower stunsail set forward. Jack 
reported in a low tone, so as to be heard only by the old 
man in the cabin, " Sail on the weather bow." 

The old man ran up the companion stairs, asking before 
he reached the top, " What does she look like. Jack? " 

"A lower stuns'l, sir," says Jack. The old man stopped, 
1 20 



SENTENCED FOR MUTINY 121 

gave him a quick look, and saying, " The hell it does ! " 
went below again. 

There are few things a sailor dislikes more than to be pre- 
vented from going below immediately at the end of his watch. 
The old man, knowing this, planned his revenge accordingly. 

At eight bells, just as the wheel was relieved, he came on 
deck bringing a needleful of sail twine. "Jack," said he, 
"go up and overhaul the main royal buntlines and put a 
stop on them," handing him the twine. It was a particu- 
larly disagreeable job, for the main royal is the loftiest yard 
of all, and from the topmast crosstrees up, there are no rat- 
lines, so it is a case of "shin." Besides, it is a boy's job, 
anyway, and one which an able seaman feels himself above 
doing. Then, when you consider that it was in his watch 
below that he had to do it, you can understand that it was 
with a very bad grace that he took the twine and started 
" up stairs." When he arrived on the yard, he hailed the 
deck and reported in a grieved tone, more in sorrow than 
in anger, that the buntlines were overhauled and stopped all 
right. "Are they?" says the old man. "Well, just take 
a look round before you come down, Jack, and see if you 
can see anything more of that sail on the weather bow." 

Jack said never a word, but slid down the royal backstay, 
and that was the last time he took any liberties with the 
old man. 

St. Lucia is a mountainous island in the Windward 
group, and the port to which we were bound being, as are 
all the ports in those islands, on the lee side, with an open 
bay and deep water right up to the beach, a ship has only 
to beat as far in as she can until becalmed under the high 
mountains, let go her anchor, get out her yawl, put the 
kedge anchor in her, bend on her longest line, and, having 
carried the kedge out as far as possible, proceed to warp 
her into the bay. 



122 ON MANY SEAS 

You don't need a pilot any more than you do between 
Sandy Hook and Land's End ; for if you go about soon 
enough to prevent knocking your jib-boom off against the 
side of the mountain, you are all right and will never touch 
bottom. As we were beating slowly in with a very light 
breeze, a canoe containing an old darky and a coloured 
boy ranged alongside the lee waist ; and the old fellow, 
reaching up as far as he could, attracted the cook's atten- 
tion after this manner : 

" Hey, St, hi dere, you yaller nigger ! " 

" Wha' yo' warnt? " asked the cook. 

" Chain up de big darg," says the old fellow. 

" Don't got no darg." 

" Sure you don't got no darg? " 

" Ain' I done tole you so? " 

"All right, boy; gimme a han' till I git abode." 

The cook hauled him in over the rail, and he walked aft to 
the wheel, and told the helmsman to luff. 

" I can't luff any more ; the royals are half aback now." 

" Well, keep her so den, an' luff when you git a 
chance." 

Here the captain stepped up to him and asked him who 
he was. 

" I'se de pilot, sah ; haul down de flyin' jib." 

" The flying jib is down." 

" Well, den, hise it up agin." 

" Say," says the old man, " what are you trying to do, 
anyway? " 

" Tryin' to show my aufority." 

" If you are a pilot, where is your ' branch ' ? " (The pilot's 
license. ) 

" I'se de hull tree, honey, branches, roots, 'n all. Is you 
de captain, sah? " 

" Yes ; I'm the captain." 



SENTENCED FOR MUTINY 1 23 

" Well, sah, why doan' you go down below an' order de 
pilot a glarse of grog, sah? " 

By this time we were well into the harbour, 'and had be- 
gun to get the sail off her ; so the pilot, seeing he was not 
going to make an impression, cleared out. In due time we 
got up to the quay and began to discharge our cargo, a 
large part of which was fire-brick, which we passed from 
one to another by hand, five bricks at a time, and it was 
killing work. 

The mate, a long, lanky, whiskered Welshman, was a 
horse. He worked with us, and set the pace. It was the 
rainy season ; one minute we would be deluged in a flood of 
warm rain, and the next the sun would be raising blisters on 
the backs of our necks; but nothing hindered our slave- 
driving mate, and he never seemed to be tired. After 
breakfast and after dinner his summons would be, " Now, 
then, wire in again," an expression which I learned to hate 
as heartily as I hated him who used it ; for Riley and I, not 
being Welsh, incurred his disapproval on that ground ; and, 
being Americans besides, merited, and received all the 
abuse of which a low, mean nature is capable. It is cus- 
tomary, when in port, to call the crew at half-past five in the 
morning. They then have coffee, and eat a hardtack or 
two, and wash decks. At eight o'clock half an hour is 
allowed for breakfast. Owing to the intense heat, it was 
impossible to sleep down in the brig's forepeak, so we used 
to lie around on the topgallant forecastle, or wherever we 
could find a place ; and, between the mosquitoes and being 
drowned out two or three times every night by showers, we 
did not get much sleep ; so that, once or twice, we had to 
be called the second time, and go without our coffee. One 
morning the cook overslept, so that we did not get our coffee 
until just as Mr. Williams, the mate, came forward to turn 
us to at six o'clock. Riley stood near the main hatch with 



124 ON MANY SEAS 

his pot of coffee in his hand. " Put down that coffee-pot 
and get to work here ; none of your Yankee tricks," said 
the mate. 

" Can't you let us have a minute to drink our coffee?" 
said Riley. " We only just got it, and it ain't four bells, 
anyway." 

"What's that?" said Mr. Williams; "you talk back to 
me? " The mate stood on the main hatch, and Riley about 
a foot lower, on the deck. The mate, as he finished speak- 
ing, picked up a rough oak stave (part of the cargo), and, 
with a full-arm swing, he brought it squarely down on top of 
Riley's bare head. I thought it must surely kill him. It 
sounded like striking an empty barrel with a baseball bat, 
and the blood flew from his cut scalp, as if a ripe tomato 
had been mashed on top of his head. The blood also 
spurted from his nostrils and ears, but he didn't even stag- 
ger. His eyes filled with tears, and a smile of grim deter- 
mination spread over his face, as he said : 

" You Welsh hound, I'll have your fife for that," and draw- 
ing his sheath-knife, he started for him. 

The mate, having the advantage of the high ground, so to 
speak, from his position on the hatch, dropped the stave, 
and throwing his long arms about Riley, he picked him up 
bodily, and started for the off-shore rail, evidently with the 
intention of throwing him overboard. 

But an enraged and vigorous boy of seventeen or eigh- 
teen years of age is an inconvenient parcel to carry against 
his will ; and although Williams had Riley off his feet with 
his arms pinioned to his sides, still by his frantic struggles 
he greatly impeded the mate's progress, and twice he nearly 
threw him down. At length Williams, with his struggling 
and kicking victim, reached the port rail. The brig had a 
low rail like all vessels of her class, and as he was unable 
to lift Riley clear over, he leaned against him, pressing his 



SENTENCED FOR MUTINY 12$ 

whole weight with all his strength against hira, apparently 
in an effort to break the boy's back. 

It was then, as he felt himself giving way, that Jack called 
for me. I heard him almost gasp out " Fred," for Jack 
Riley was as plucky as they make them and would never 
"squeal" until he found himself in a hopeless extremity. 

When he called me I was already half-way across the 
hatch on the way to his assistance, and spurred on by his 
weak voice, my regard for my shipmate, and my hatred 
for the mate, I leaped from the hatch directly on to Wil- 
liams's back and seizing him by his long hair with my left 
hand, I yanked his head back with all my might. I should 
have thought the sudden jerk would have broken his neck, 
but I guess nothing but the hangman's noose will ever do 
that. Then I began raining blows on his upturned " mug." 

My fist was hard, my arm strong, and my heart gloried 
in the work. I can readily believe that WiUiams must have 
been a very surprised Welshman. At any rate, he relaxed his 
hold on Riley, who, regaining his senses and his feet, made 
a vicious jab at the mate with his sheath-knife ; but as Wil- 
liams and his rider had " sternway on," he escaped a fatal 
stab, but not a good long slash down his breast, his shirt 
being open at the time. His heels came in contact with 
the hatch-combings, and over he went backwards, on top 
of me, and Riley, in turn, on top of him. By this time 
quite a little excitement had begun to manifest itself on 
deck. The crew had gathered around, and yet though it 
was a fight between a Welshman and somebody else, they 
had so little love for the mate that they made no attempt 
to interfere in his behalf. But it was fortunate for all con- 
cerned that they were there, for as Riley leaped upon the 
mate, sure of his prey, and bent only on sweet revenge, 
he raised his knife high in the air for a sure and swift stab 
home ; but the nimble mulatto cook saw it just in time 



126 ON MANY SEAS 

to catch hold of his wrist before he could strike, and he 
twisted the uplifted arm about until Riley was forced to 
drop the knife. All this time I had kept a continual tattoo 
on the mate's head and face, wherever I could get a lick ; 
with the very natural result that he was not nearly as 
frisky as he was when he hit poor Riley with the stave. 
This racket roused the captain, wlio came on deck and 
took a hand in the proceedings right away. He pulled 
Riley off the mate and then pulled the mate off me, and 
stood us all up on deck together. 

We were a fine sight ! All three of us were covered with 
blood, and what clothes we had on were torn to rags. The 
mate's face was pounded almost to a jelly ; both his eyes 
were so nearly closed that he had to grope his way aft. 
Riley was in pretty bad shape, but I was unhurt. Immedi- 
ately after this the captain brought two pairs of irons and, 
coming forward, called on Riley and me to surrender our- 
selves and go in irons. But as we were afraid that if he got 
us in his power he and the mate would revenge themselves 
to their hearts' content, we declined. 

We told him we would surrender to the shore authorities 
only, and would resist him and his mate to the end. 

"All right," said he; "I intended to put you in irons, 
maybe for a day or two, and then let you out and per- 
haps never mention the matter again [Oh yes, we knew all 
about that] ; but now I'll send you to jail and leave you to 
rot there." 

We told him we had about as hef rot on the island as 
under his hatches. So away he went ashore, and presently 
came back with a couple of policemen. These men were 
all old British soldiers who had served their time and were 
given these positions as a kind of pension ; and a fine lot 
of fellows they were too, as I found out afterwards when I 
became acquainted with them. They took us ashore to the 



SENTENCED FOR MUTINY 1 27 

palace of justice, I suppose it should be called, for the best 
of all reasons that there was no justice in it. As we were 
going over the rail, up came the captain out of the cabin 
with a ham, which he held out to one of the policemen, tell- 
ing him to present it with his compliments to the judge. 

The policeman looked at the ham, and then at the cap- 
tain. "To the judge, is it?" said he. "Oh, thin, be the 
way ye stuck it out ter me I thought it was fer mesilf. Faith, 
thin, if ye have anny prisints or bribes, or annythin' to make 
to the judge, ye can carry thim yersilf, or hire a naygur ; 
sure I'm no porther for ye." 

" All right, Irish," said the captain. " I'll report you for 
that speech, slandering your superiors." 

" Shupariors, hey? Is that so? and whin, I'd like to know, 
did an owld man-of-war bos'n come to be the shuparior 
of an ex- member of the Enniskillen Rifles, honourably dis- 
charged from Her Majesty's service ? " And with his nose in 
the air he marched us ashore. It seems that the governor 
of the island was an old post-captain of the British navy, 
and for some unknown reason he had appointed an old 
boatswain to be justice of the little court held there, and as 
there is an "irrepressible conflict" between the two ser- 
vices, the very natural result was a clash between the judge 
and pohce. 

We were shoved into a sort of pen with half a dozen 
negroes who were up for drunkenness, steahng, and such 
petty misdemeanours, which afforded the bulk of the busi- 
ness for the court of this marine Dogberry ; and in due time 
we were ushered into the august presence. 

I should have known that the judge was an ex-boatswain 
if I had seen him milking Deacon Ben Russell's old brindle 
cow. He had all the earmarks, although he evidently tried 
hard to disguise them. His figure, though of medium 
height, was very broad and full-chested. He was a man of 



128 ON MANY SEAS 

apparently sixty years, with curly, iron-gray hair, shaggy 
brows, and whiskers trimmed quite close, after the fashion 
known to British sailors as " bloody sojer's whiskers." This 
might have been a concession to the prejudices of the 
police ; but, if so, I never could discover that it produced 
any good effect, for they could not have hated him more 
heartily than they did. 

His voice had the deep, hoarse tones so familiar as the 
boatswain's trade-mark, and when he opened his mouth to 
speak you were surprised that he didn't sing out "All hands 
ahoy ! " 

As we entered, our captain was seated in a chair by his 
side, and between them on the magisterial desk and in 
plain sight, was the ham. They were conversing pleas- 
antly, these two nautical worthies, when we two boys were 
brought in. 

" Ah, captain, these are your mutineers, I beheve. Will 
you please state your case, sir? " said the judge. Hereupon 
the captain proceeded to state that we two were Yankee 
desperadoes ; that we had kept him, his mate and crew, in a 
turmoil ever since we came aboard the brig in London. That 
we had frequently threatened the lives of him and his mate, 
and that on this particular morning we had " laid " for the 
mate as he came up the companion steps before daylight ; 
that I had caught hold of him and held him, while Riley 
had tried to cut his throat. He said that while Riley had 
failed to carry out the programme in full, owing to the mate's 
sturdy resistance, he had nevertheless inflicted an apparently 
very dangerous stab wound, from which, he would not be 
surprised on returning aboard, to find that he had died. The 
captain added that being in a hurry to get his cargo out, and 
being now short-handed, he had not brought any witnesses, 
but could, if necessary, produce the whole crew. 

'■' Not necessary, captain," said the judge ; " your word is 



SENTENCED FOR MUTINY 1 29 

satisfactory. We will now hear what these young criminals 
have to say for themselves. What is your name, my lad? " 

''John Patrick Riley, sir." 

" Irish? I thought you said they were Yankees," said the 
judge to the captain. 

" Well," said the captain, " I never saw a Yankee that 
was anything else but an Irishman ; did you? " 

"True enough ; and your name? " turning to me. 

" Frederick Benton WiUiams, sir." 

" Now, my lads, you have heard your captain's story ; 
what have you to say to it?" 

"Well, sir — " said Riley. 

" Shut up, you young scoundrel; you have the audacity to 
contradict the statement of your own captain, right to his 
face and mine. I'll give you — When do you expect to 
sail for Castries, captain?" 

" In about three weeks, perhaps a little more." 

" Well, then, I'll give them three weeks, and if you want 
them before, you can take them out of jail. In the mean- 
time, you can hire as many negroes as you consider neces- 
sary to replace them in working the cargo, and take it out 
of their wages when you return to London." 

Then turning to us as if we had been stone-deaf during the 
preceding conversation, or didn't understand the language, he 
said : " I shall give you but three weeks at hard labour, unless 
the mate dies of his injuries in the meantime, which he is 
very likely to do. But should he survive the effects of your 
brutal assault, and your captain be wiUing to give you another 
trial, I will allow him to take you to sea with him again." 

Turning to the captain, Riley said, " If you'd given him 
a cheese along with that ham, he'd have hung us for you." 

While the captain had the grace to look a little confused, 
the ex-boatswain merely grinned as though he enjoyed the 
joke, which no doubt he did. So Riley and I went to jail. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Three Weeks in Jail. — West India Fever. — For Char- 
ity's Sake. — Death and Resurrection. — Short Al- 
lowance. 

We pounded stone and picked oakum, and fought mos- 
quitoes and fleas and other " critters " for tliree weeks, at 
the end of which time we were sent aboard, as the brig had 
discharged her cargo, taken in some sugar, and was now 
bound a few miles around the coast to a little port called 
Castries, for more sugar ; after which she would return 
again and finish loading. We couldn't observe any differ- 
ence in the mate's manner towards us from what it always 
had been ; he was just as overbearing and hateful as ever. 
He showed no signs of the licking he got, except the end 
of a freshly healed wound above his collar and dangerously 
near to his jugular ; so I told Riley that, after all, perhaps 
the captain and the judge were honest in their fears that he 
might die, although at the time we had regarded it as merely 
a bluff. 

While in Castries I contracted chills and fever, and I got 
so bad with them that my mind at last became a blank. 
Then I recovered a little, and every morning when the 
captain would come forward and ask me, " Well, will you 
turn to this morning?" I would answer that I was willing, 
but unable ; and I would then ask to be sent ashore to the 
hospital. It is one of the first things you learn on becom- 

130 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION 131 

ing a "lime-juicer," — to never refuse duty. If you do, you 
play directly into the enemy's hands, and make yourself 
liable to imprisonment and loss of wages. But if you 
declare yourself willing, even anxious, to work, but unable, 
you take the wind out of his sails, and he must provide you 
medical attendance or send you to the hospital, or take the 
consequences if you die on his hands after having notified 
him over and over again that you were sick. The " lime- 
juice sailor " is a fine legal luminary. 

At last he could not help seeing that I was a very sick 
boy. He agreed to pay me off, and leave me in hospital. 
I haven't a very clear knowledge of the details of matters 
which occurred at that time, for my mind was hazy from 
the fever. I remember that he paid me in silver, in the 
cabin. How much he paid, or how much he robbed me 
of, I cannot say ; but I would not do such violence to my 
memory of the rum-drinking, pious har as to believe for 
a moment that he paid me anything like what was due. 
But I didn't care. If he had not given me a cent, but 
only just let me go to the hospital, I would have been 
satisfied ; for I expected nothing but that I should feed 
the land-crabs. I bade good-bye to Riley, and in doing so 
cut the last remaining tie that bound me to home. I hated 
to leave him among the Welshmen, with not a friendly soul 
aboard, and tried to persuade him to desert and join me 
on the island. 

" No, sir," said Jack. " I've earned my money mighty 
hard aboard of this old 'juicer,' and I'm going to have it, 
if I have to cut the heart out of every Welshman aboard 
of her and take her to London myself." 

So I packed my very, very few belongings in an old 
canvas bag, bid Jack good-bye, and went ashore, hardly 
knowing what I was about. 

How long I remained in hospital or on the island, I 



132 ON MANY SEAS 

cannot say. I must have been delirious for a long time. 
When I came to myself again, I found that I had entrusted 
my little bag of dollars to an old darky, who seemed to 
take a most fatherly interest in me ; and after I was able 
to go out into the town for an hour or two and sit in the 
sun, or visit the policemen at the station, taking a few cents 
with me to buy a httle fruit or anything I might fancy, he 
would insist on my counting the money both before and 
after I had taken what I wanted, although I told him I 
trusted him implicitly. 

I found, on going down to the harbour, that there was 
but one vessel in port, — a brigantine belonging to Phila- 
delphia, called the James L. Baker. I was told she was 
the last vessel that would be in port until next season ; 
and as I didn't want to be left on St. Lucia until the darkies 
raised another crop of sugar, I went aboard, told my story to 
the captain, and asked him for a passage home. I told him 
I couldn't work, but showed him my little bag of money, 
and offered to give it to him if he would take me home. 
He said he was satisfied that I was an American boy, and 
he could see that I was sick and hard up, and he would 
give ine a passage to the States for charity. 

He told me when he was going to sail, and I got down 
to the quay just in time to get aboard with my empty 
clothes-bag. 

The brigantine was bound to Port au Spain, Trinidad, to 
discharge some horses and the remainder of her cargo. The 
mate, Mr. Thomas Nixon, managed to get out of me all 
there was to be had, which wasn't much ; and I imagine 
that, as part owner, he found fault with the captain for 
having given me my passage. At any rate, we touched at 
Port au Spain, and the next day after our arrival the old 
man called me aft and told me that I was apparently unable 
to do much useful work, and as " charity didn't go but 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION 1 33 

mighty little ways " with him, he wished I would go ashore 
to the American consul and see if I couldn't get him to 
pay my fare. 

" If he won't," said the old man, '' I'll kerry ye, anyway; 
but it'll be a help to me if he will." 

I took my time, being sick and weak, but at last reached 
the consul's office, and it did me good to see the Ameri- 
can coat of arms again. It seemed to bring me nearer 
home. 

The consul, a young man about thirty, after hearing my 
tale, asked me why I came to him. I told him because the 
captain wanted to be paid for taking me home. 

" But," said he, " you have no claim on me. You should 
go to the British consul. You are a British subject." 

This I denied hotly. 

"I am an American," said I, "born in Ossipee, New 
Hampshire ; and I never was, and never will be, a British 
subject." 

He laughed, and said he knew well enough that I was an 
American boy, but that, by shipping in a British vessel, I 
had forfeited my right to American protection, and was 
entitled only to British protection. " However," said he, 
" I'll give the captain ten dollars to take you home." 

We stayed but a few days in Trinidad, taking in a Httle 
ballast, and then sailed for Orchilla, a guano island belong- 
ing to a Philadelphia firm. This island is shaped hke a 
horseshoe, the anchorage being in the bight of it. The 
guano comes off in lighters. There was absolutely nothing 
but guano, two white men, and a few blacks on the island. 
Not a blade of grass or a bush to break the monotony of 
colour of the low, dirty-brown hills of which it is composed. 
The white men were the superintendent and the cook. All 
the rest were negroes, shipped in the adjacent islands for 
terms of three months each. They quarried the guano and 



134 ON iMANY SEAS 

piled it near highwater mark, and when the Philadelphia 
firm sent them a vessel they loaded her. 

There was never more than one vessel there at a time, 
and, as there was no diversion whatever, the superintendent, 
with the cook for company, put in most of his time drink- 
ing "old Tom" gin. They had got into a fight during one 
of their bouts, and the superintendent had decorated the 
cook's face until it looked like a tea-store chromo ; conse- 
quently, his time having expired, he returned with us to the 
States. 

While here I went through an experience that I shall 
never forget : not that it made any impression on my mind 
at the time, but it has come back to me since. As I re- 
ceived absolutely no medical attention of any kind, the 
fever simply took its course ; and while at times I could 
help a little about the decks, at others I was reduced almost 
to a state of idiocy. I can remember how I used to sit, I 
presume all day, — and yet it may have only been for a few 
minutes, — on a chest near the door of the forecastle, wish- 
ing somebody would come along, so that I could ask for a 
drink of water. All of a sudden, somebody would appear 
in front of me with a pot of water, and tell me it was not 
two minutes since I had asked him for it. He had gone at 
once ; but I had forgotten as entirely as though it never 
happened. One afternoon I woke up, or came to myself, 
whichever it may have been, to find myself lying in the 
starboard scuppers, with the captain and his wife and nearly 
all the crew gathered about me. Although I had not strength 
enough to move or speak, I could hear what was said about 
me. I found that I had just been brought out of the fore- 
castle by two of the sailors, as they objected to my dying 
there. So it was here in the scuppers of this old rattletrap 
brig that I was expected to pass in my checks. On regain- 
ing consciousness, although my mind was perfectly clear and 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION 1 35 

I could understand every word spoken in my hearing, I was 
too weak to move so much as an eyelid. 

Nixon, the mate, said I was dead, and called to a couple 
of the sailors to heave me overboard ; but the captain's wife 
objected, and the old man sustained the objection. Nixon 
was told to give me a chance to get reasonably cold, and to 
try and spare enough old canvas to give me a half-Christian 
burial. 

The point to which I wish to call attention is this. I 
have heard of people in like condition who were filled with 
horror by the contemplation of an impending fate which 
they were powerless to avert. In my case there was no 
such feeUng. I felt, if anything, rather pleased at the pros- 
pect of having my troubles finally wound up. If my vote 
could have been taken on Nixon's proposition, I think I 
should have sent myself overboard ; and I know that I should 
not have voted in the negative. I was strictly brought up in 
a New England community, but in this extremity I had no 
more thought or care for my immortal soul than I had for 
my old empty clothes-bag in the forecastle. 

Years afterwards, at the other side of the world, I passed 
through a not dissimilar experience, and the two episodes 
have left the indelible conviction on my mind that man 
naturally dies as a dog dies. It is only when surrounded 
by friends and clergy who are anxious for the welfare of the 
passing soul that an unnatural excitement is awakened in 
the weak mind of the dying person, who then sees visions 
and hears voices. 

I have seen many men die on board ship and in hospital, 
and have yet to hear the first request for spiritual consola- 
tion or regrets expressed for sins committed, and I am sure 
the life of a sailor is far from spotless. 

As I was now pronounced dead, Nixon hunted up a piece 
of an old gaff-topsail that was so rotten and so thick with 



136 ON MANY SEAS 

patch upon patch that he couldn't hope to make any use of 
it except to sell to the junkman when he got home ; this he 
threw over me, and I was left to get " reasonably cold " 
before burial, and everybody went about their business. In 
due time I began to feel unreasonably cold, and with the 
sense of feeling the power of locomotion returned ; so I 
crawled unnoticed from under my ragged shroud back into 
the forecastle. When Nixon got good and ready to have 
a funeral, he found himself minus a corpse, and he rather 
reluctantly consented to give me another chance for life. 

In due time we had our guano stored, but we had taken 
too much aboard, and had to unload nearly half of it. At 
last we were off with, at the very best, a dismal prospect 
before us, for we knew that even in fine weather we would 
have to pump nearly all the time, and what in the world 
should we do in bad weather? A long passage we were 
sure of, for though so lightly loaded, " she could not keep out 
of her own way," as the saying is, and as if to cast a ray 
of bright sunshine across the otherwise gloomy prospect, 
the steward hinted that we would be apt to go hungry, unless 
we made a remarkably short passage. 

Sure enough, the very first day out we were put on short 
allowance. Ever since my " resurrection," as Nixon called 
it, I had been improving, so that I was now able to potter 
round the decks nearly all day doing something or other. 
During the fine weather I steered a good deal of the time, 
and though I was kept on deck all day, and supposed to 
have all night in, Nixon would rout me out in his watch 
nights to hold turn when the men were pulling, and to coil 
up the ropes again, when through. So that I finally went to 
the captain and asked him to take me into his watch, that 
I could at least have as much rest as the regular crew. This 
he kindly did, and that cleared me of Nixon's clutches. So, 
after all, his charity was of the right sort as far as it went. 



DEATH AND RESURRECTION 1 37 

As time wore on, the daily allowance of grub grew less and 
less, until at last it got to be one sandwich served out to 
each person three times a day ; then the sandwiches them- 
selves got smaller. The captain's wife, poor old lady, used 
to take her sandwich and retire to her stateroom. When 
I first saw her she was a big, fat woman, and mus*^^ have 
weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds, but on this 
passage she dwindled almost to a skeleton. Poor woman, 
and yet she was so patient ! The steward told me that she 
never once asked for even a crumb over her allowance, 
although she must have suffered intensely. 



CHAPTER XV 

The Last Sandwich. — A Philadelphia Pilot. — Destitu- 
tion. — I ship for Antwerp. — A Soft-hearted Mate. 
— All Hands Ashore. — Three Thomases. 

Although a bright lookout was kept in the hope of speak- 
ing a vessel and getting help, yet not a sail did we see, and 
this in a great marine thoroughfare. Luck was against us 
in this respect, though, thanks to "Old Nep," we were 
spared the great trial that we had dreaded all the time, — of 
bad weather. I don't think we .would ever have got the 
old hooker into port if just one little gale had caught us ; 
for we were worn out with constant pumping and hunger, 
and the day came when, as the steward handed out the 
phantom sandwich to each one, he said, " Make the most 
of it, boys, for it is the last." Well, we didn't care so very 
much ; for we had been hungry so long now that we could 
hardly conceive of any other condition. So we pumped 
silently and dejectedly ; and once in a while I could see 
that some of the men were getting light-headed. They 
would go to the forecastle for a biscuit, and come back 
grumbling that the bread barge was empty. The cook was 
roused out by one of the men to get breakfast before twelve 
o'clock at night. A committee of two went aft to the 
captain the next day and complained of the quality of the 
provisions. They said the bread was weevilly, the flour 
musty, and the beef so hard and salt that they couldn't 

138 



A SOFT-HEARTED MATE 1 39 

eat it. Poor old man ! he wasn't very much better off than 
they ; for he told them they never had better or more plen- 
tiful grub than they were getting here in their lives, and that 
if he heard any more complaints he would put them on bare 
allowance and keep them on deck in their afternoon watch 
as well. 

After our last ration was served out to us, we got no more 
to eat until the afternoon of the next day, when we spoke a 
Philadelphia pilot-boat and got a pilot and all the provisions 
they could spare, both cooked and raw. How all hands 
did pitch into the splendid cold corned beef and cold 
boiled potatoes which they sent aboard ! Even the captain's 
wife came right down on the main deck among us, took 
her share in her hands from the steward, who had divided it 
equally, and ate it ravenously. There was not much ready 
cooked food, for the pilot-boat's crew was of course small, 
so that we only got a bite apiece ; but they sent a good big 
piece of beef and about half a bushel of potatoes and half 
a bag of hard bread aboard, and you may be sure that while 
the cook was boihng the beef and potatoes, you couldn't 
find a member of our crew without a biscuit in his hand, at 
which he gnawed continuously. 

Shortly after we got the pilot, the haze which had hung 
over the sea all day thinned out a bit and we made out 
the Delaware capes ; and I saw as slick a bit of piloting as I 
have ever seen. The pilot was an old fellow at least seventy 
years of age, and he knew his business thoroughly. You 
might have taken him for a travelling Methodist minister, 
rather than for a seafaring man. He had been very tall in 
his day, but now he was bowed with age. His hair and 
whiskers were white as snow, and he wore a shabby plug hat 
and dingy black suit of clothes, much more suitable for the 
pulpit of a country church than the quarter-deck of a ship. 
The night was pitch-dark and the captain wanted to anchor. 



I40 ON MANY SEAS 

" Not necessary, captain," said the old fellow. " I've been 
up and down this bay and river too often to mind the want 
of light." And so he had ; he kept the hand-lead lying 
handy in the lee gangway, and once in a while he would 
walk over there and drop it overboard ; then, noting the 
depth of water, he would carry it to the binnacle, and by the 
light of the binnacle lamp look at the "charge." A lead is 
"charged" by pushing a piece of soap or cold tallow into 
the cavity which is left in the bottom end for that purpose. 
The charge protrudes slightly, so as to make a good contact 
with the bottom, a sample of which it brings away with it. 
As the depth of water and kind of bottom are marked on 
the chart in small squares, it is easy to understand what a 
great help to the navigator the lead is. By its use alone, 
and of course with the knowledge which long years of 
experience had given him, the aged pilot literally felt his 
way up that bay and river all night long and never shortened 
sail a minute. 

We were soon out of provisions again, for what we got 
from the pilot-boat only gave us one meal ; so that, when we 
arrived in Philadelphia the next morning, we were nearly 
as hungry as we had been at any time on this exceedingly 
hungry passage ; and yet, such a second nature does disci- 
pline become to sailors, that although there was no breakfast 
for them, and it was twenty -four hours since they had tasted 
food, and knew they would have no more until they found 
their boarding-houses, still they hauled her to her berth, 
made her fast, coiled the ropes, furled the sails, and even 
gave her a final pump out, although they might just as well 
have jumped ashore as soon as they came within jumping 
distance. 

I, of course, had no pay coming, had only such clothes 
as I stood up in, and was very far from well. I shall never 
forget the figure that I cut when I walked ashore from the 



A SOFT-HEARTED MATE 141 

James L. Baker, in Philadelphia. I had on a pair of dun- 
garee pants and a hickory shirt ; no underclothes of any 
kind ; no stockings ; and a pair of dry, hard, wrinkled, 
cowhide sea-boots, which had chafed my ankle-bones until 
I had to cut big holes in them for relief. I had an old fur 
cap on my head, and an empty canvas clothes-bag slung 
over my shoulder. Why I hung on to it, I don't know, 
unless it was because it was the only thing, outside of what 
I stood in, that was mine. It was the month of November 
when I arrived in my native land in this very airy costume. 
I was within an easy hundred miles of my father's dinner- 
table. I had been away from the States for about three 
years, and this was the way I came back. These were my 
three years' accumulations. I was sick, and yes, I may as 
well acknowledge that I was covered with vermin. I had 
collected them in the jail and hospital in St. Lucia and had 
never since had the means or even the life and vim to get 
rid of them. Of course, going home was out of the ques- 
tion. There were not locomotives enough on the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad to haul me to New York ; so I travelled 
around until I found a low down disreputable sailors' board- 
ing-house keeper who would take me in for what he could 
get out of my month's advance. He kept me about a 
week, and then shipped me in the bark Cynthia -Palmer to 
Antwerp. She was one of those Nova Scotia vessels, built 
of spruce and hemlock, that you find all over the world. 
They build them by the mile down there, and will saw you 
off a piece as long as you want, turn in the ends for bow 
and a stern, and there you are ! The captain was built in 
the same place as the bark, of the same material, and in the 
same manner. The mate was a big Dutchman ; and the 
second mate, in whose watch I happened to be, was the 
best of the whole crowd aft. 

He was a Nova Scotian, but of strong American pro- 



142 ON MANY SEAS 

clivities. There was nothing of the "lime-juicer" about 
him, not a bit. Of course, I was in awful hard luck. To 
cross the western ocean in November, in an old, Nova Scotia 
bark, is bad enough, in all conscience ; but when, in addition 
to that, I was to all intents and purposes naked, you must 
admit that my lot was not an enviable one. 

One night, in the middle watch, as I stood shivering at 
the wheel, almost dead with cold and misery, the second 
mate strolled over and looked into the binnacle for a min- 
ute, then looking up at me, in my dungaree pants, hickory 
shirt, sea-boots cut full of holes, and old fur cap, he said, 

" Why the h don't you put some clothes on to yourself, 

so you can keep warm enough to steer?" I told him I 
had no clothes, only what I had on. He wanted to know 
how that happened ; and I gave him a short history of my 
misfortunes since leaving the Tanjore. Glancing up at me 
quickly, he said, " You are an American ; where do you 
belong? " 

I told him. New York. 

" Got any people living there? " 

" Yes, sir ; my father lives there." 

"How long have you been away from home?" 

" About three years, sir." 

"And yet," said he, "after being away from home three 
years, you leave the broadside of America, within a hundred 
miles of your father's house, in such a condition as this? 

It serves you right. D you ! Freeze ! " He strode 

over to the weather side, and stood looking to windward for 
ten or fifteen minutes, when he came back, and, after taking 
another look at the compass, said to me : 

" I suppose you was ashamed to go home because you 
was hard up, hey?" 

"Yes, sir," said I. 

"Yes, I know," said he, and walking round the deck- 



A SOFT-HEARTED MATE 143 

house, he disappeared down the companion ladder, and 
pretty soon came aft again, bringing an old monkey 
jacket and pair of thick pants. He took the wheel from 
me and ordered me to put them on ; and oh, how comfort- 
able and warm I felt after that ! If it had not been for him, 
I believe I should have died of exposure on that trip across ; 
for we had cold, stormy weather all the way. He lent a 
lot of things after that, and although there was no such thing 
as keeping dry, it makes a big difference how much there is 
between one's wet skin and the cold wind. I had no bed- 
ding except a so-called mattress filled with carpenter-shop 
shavings. For want of blankets, I used to lie on the bare 
bunk boards and pull my mattress over me; but, on account 
of its stiffness, it was little more effective as a covering than 
a board would have been. By the time the watch below 
expired, the natural heat of ray body began to warm my 
wet clothes so that I would be done shivering, and then I 
had to go on deck again to be received by a green sea, 
containing tons of Neptune's choicest and coldest brine, 
causing me to forget that I had ever enjoyed such a luxury 
as a stiff mattress for a covering. 

But if it was a tough passage for me, it at least took the 
last remnants of the West India fever out of me ; literally 
froze and drenched them out, and I was troubled no more 
with it. I wanted to stay with the bark long enough to have 
a pay-day, so that I could get some clothes. I was terribly 
destitute. I remember wondering to myself, when the men 
were getting ready to go ashore in Antwerp, how they man- 
aged to have coats, and wondering if I should ever be able 
to own such an article ; not having had one since the loss of 
the Hamlin, nor even the price of one, it certainly didn't 
look as if I ever should again. There was a boy in the 
forecastle by the name of "Johnny"; he had been with 
the bark several voyages, and I noticed that even the mates 



144 ON MANY SEAS 

treated him with some httle deference, so I tried to cultivate 
Johnny's good-will, hoping that possibly some of the influ- 
ence which kept him in the -bark might be deflected in my 
direction, so as to enable me to stay in her too. 

But alas for vain hopes ; when we got our anchor down 
in the Scheldt, the mate came forward and asked who was 
going ashore. He said that if anybody wanted to leave, the 
captain would give him what money he had coming to him. 
This magnanimity is explained by the fact that wages are 
lower in Antwerp than in New York ; and I must say that 
it was a very creditable act on the part of the " blue nose," 
for many a skipper would simply have starved and worked 
and, if need be, licked his crew until they would have been 
glad to clear out, and let their wages go. One after another 
the men said they would go ashore ; but Johnny, who was 
behind some of the others, said he wouldn't. 

The mate heard it and asked, " Who is that ? " 

"Johnny," said one of the men. 

"Oh, no," said the mate; "Johnny can't go until the 
mainmast goes." 

How I envied Johnny ! but I said nothing, making up my 
mind that I would stay in her if I could. So when after 
breakfast the men mustered at the gangway with their bags 
and chests, I was not there, and the big Dutch mate, coming 
forward, asked if I was going ashore. 

" No, sir," said I. 

"Oh, you ain't, hey? Veil, git up dere and scrape de 
spanker-gaff." The spanker had a standing gaff, that is, 
it was never lowered, so I must needs shin out to the very 
peak and scrape it bright and clean. 

It was a bitter cold day ; the ice was driving past in great 
cakes. Anything exposed for a few minutes froze solid, and 
my outfit had relapsed ; for the second mate, thinking that I 
would surely go ashore with the rest, had called in his loans. 



A SOFT-HEARTED MATE 1 45 

I was reduced to my original outfit with which I landed in 
Philadelphia ; only now, of course, it was a couple of months 
older, and, consequently, just so much nearer done for. 
Well, I mounted the gaff, and scraped as long as I could 
hang on with my benumbed fingers ; then I came down, pre- 
tending I wanted to sharpen my knife, and the mate chased 
me up again until I saw it was a game I was bound to lose, 
so I surrendered and went ashore too. 

I luckily came across one of the crew, a young English- 
man of about my own age, by the name of Tom. He 
invited me to go to his boarding-house, and I went, and re- 
mained there until one day as we were sitting around the 
bar-room wishing for something to turn up, in comes an old 
Enghshman looking for two men for his schooner. Tom 
and I presented ourselves, and after asking us, among other 
things, if we were used to small vessels, which, of course, we 
answered in the affirmative, he shipped us on board the top- 
sail schooner, John Francis Buller, of Looe, England, for 
Bilbao, Spain, in the Bay of Biscay, When we got aboard, 
we found the schooner to be one hundred and ten tons' 
register, the smallest vessel I have ever belonged to. We 
found, also, that he had a mate and cook, so that Tom and 
1 formed the crew. The mate's name was "Tummus," the 
cook's name was Tom, and as my partner's was the same, 
the captain and I were the only ones who were not Toms. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Bilbao. — Spanish Methods. — Wrecked off Dunquerque. 
— French Seamanship. 

Bilbao is some little way up from the mouth of the river, 
which is, I think, about the worst place that I ever saw. 
The big Bay of Biscay seas roll directly in, and of course it 
is almost always stormy. The pilots do not pretend to 
board you. They simply go up on a hill at the entrance of 
the river with a flag, and motion to you to keep to port or 
starboard as is necessary. Holding the flag in a perpen- 
dicular position means " steady " ; and with such piloting 
as that you are indeed lucky if you get in, for there is a 
dangerous shifting bar of sand outside, and if your keel 
once grazes that you are gone, your ship and crew, too, for 
the Spaniards make not the slightest attempt to save any- 
body or anything. As this place is in the extreme lee 
corner of that stormy body, the Bay of Biscay, you can see 
that when a vessel gets as far as that into the bay, she must 
make a port or pile her bones on the sands. 

It seemed as if there were wrecks outside, almost every 
day while we were there ; but we were in luck this time, and 
got in safely. Once inside, a yoke of oxen was hitched to 
the schooner, and towed her up the river. The tow-line was 
taken from the mainmast head and had a running bowline 
on it, that led through a block on the flying jib-boom end. 
So that by hauling or slacking on that, we could either 

146 



FRENCH SEAMANSHIP I47 

make her follow along after the ox team, or keep her 
abreast of them in the stream. 

Verily, the Spaniards are many centuries behind the age. 
There was a retaining wall for miles and miles along the 
river-bank to keep up the tow-path, and I wondered what 
former generation had had sprawl enough to build it ; for 
if they were the ancestors of the present incumbents, it must 
have been a good many ages before they degenerated to the 
present standard. 

Arriving at the place where we were to discharge, we 
soon put out the cargo, and Tom and I struck the old man 
for money. He gave us a couple of dollars apiece, and we 
started up to Bilbao. But we never got there, for Tom, 
spying a wine shop, proposed that we go in and have a glass 
of wine, and I, noways backward, agreed. 

We found several natives in the place. I suppose in this 
country we would have called them Bums or Rounders, but 
such a term would be very unsuitable to apply to the 
haughty Spaniard ; for no matter what his condition may 
be, he never loses his dignity, but will condescend to accept 
a real with such urbanity that you feel grateful to him for 
not being offended. Tom, with true sailorly freedom, asked 
the gentlemen what they would have. "Vino," of course; 
and Tom and I took the same; after which, it being my 
treat, we again had vino all round. 

By this time we had forgotten all about Bilbao and the 
black-eyed beauties that we came ashore to see ; but we 
swore eternal friendship to the hidalgos who condescend- 
ingly drank the wine we paid for. I have a dim remem- 
brance of the way they kept their heads and their dignity 
while Tom and I, full of red wine and cheap talk, made 
most egregious asses of ourselves. 

Finally, by the aid of that sixth sense which governs the 
affairs of the inebriated, we decided to go aboard, and 



148 ON MANY SEAS 

Started, of course, wrong ; for we went out into the yard of 
the wine shop, and had to climb over a high board fence as 
a starter ; whereas if we had gone out of the front door as I 
wanted to, we would merely have had to walk down the 
street. We were all the rest of the afternoon getting over 
that fence, for I know it was bright sunshine when we first 
tackled the job, and pitch dark when we finally fell off it 
together on the outside. 

As the yard of the wine shop was on the river-bank, when 
we fell over, Tom fell partly in the water, while I, falling on 
dry land, wanted to go to sleep right where I was. But 
Tom wouldn't have that ; he said we must go aboard, and 
we began roaring out ^'■Joh7i Fnuicis B idler, ahoy ! " every 
few steps, although we were a couple of miles from her 
when we started. 

And what a time we had of it ! It seemed as if the whole 
blamed country was full of holes which we kept falling into. 
Three times did Tom, who was in the advance, fall into the 
river ; and in each instance I nearly drowned both him and 
myself in pulling him out. So we floundered and ploughed 
along in the dark, yelling the schooner's name every few 
minutes ; and what with hollering, laughing, yelling, and 
splashing into the river, and all the mud-holes within half a 
mile of the river, w-e finally stumbled over the boat, with 
Tom, the cook, standing in her like a cigar-store Indian, 
upright and silent. 

The captain took a coast pilot who could not speak a 
word of English, and a few tons of ballast, and went down 
the coast to load. Here our ballast was taken out and 
our cargo put in by women, while the men sat on the little 
dock smoking cigarettes and talking with the women and 
girls as they worked. I don't know whether the men we 
saw were any kin to the women, or not, but at any rate it 
looked queer. We loaded with a substance which they 



FRENCH SEAMANSHIP I49 

called " mineral." I do not know what it was, but it was 
very heavy. They brought it in little baskets on their heads, 
and dumped it into the main hatch, and just where it fell 
there it stayed, and long before the httle pile in the hatch 
was up to the combings the schooner was loaded. It 
looked like a lot of old plaster and dirt from buildings 
in course of demolition. Whatever it may have been, it 
was bound for Antwerp, and so soon as we got it in it was 
"up mudhook " and away again. Everything progressed 
finely until we got down to the Straits of Dover. We had 
been on the lookout for a pilot for several days ; but not an 
Antwerp boat was to be seen until we got abreast of Deal, 
when we saw one, but he was in chase of a big American 
bark, and paid no heed to us until he had boarded her. 
Then he ran under our stern, and told us he had put his 
last pilot aboard the bark, but that if we wished we could 
follow him into Antwerp, as he was going home. The old 
man told him he could go on, he needn't mind us ; he said 
he could take her into Antwerp himself. When the pilot- 
boat left us without boarding, then the "hobblers " gathered 
round, all wanting to put an Antwerp pilot aboard of us ; 
but as their pilots, although quite competent, are not recog- 
nized by the board of underwriters, the old man wouldn't 
bother with them, but kept on his way. 

That night, in the middle watch, I was awakened by be- 
ing nearly thrown out of my hammock. As I lay half awake, 
wondering what was the matter, bang she came down again. 
I knew what that was ; I had experienced it before. Just 
as I was about to get out of my hammock, the scuttle was 
shoved back, and Tom roared out : 

"Come, what's the matter with ye? Are ye dead? The 
schooner's been pounding on this bar for half an hour, and 
you're asleep yet." 

" Oh," said I, " go and bag your head. What time is it? " 



150 ON MANY SEAS 

" Time to come up out o' that, if you don't want to be 
drowned like a rat," said Tom. So I went on deck and 
found all hands standing about aft, doing nothing except 
watch the hand-lead Hne, which was overboard, to see which 
way she was drifting. There was a big bright light about 
a mile to windward, the light-ship off the Dunquerque shoal, 
placed there on purpose to warn off vessels like us ; but our 
skipper was drunk most of the time, and so he lost not only 
his vessel, but his insurance, too. 

We found by the trend of the lead-line that she was drift- 
ing lengthwise of the sand-bar, and it was easy to see that 
she could never hold together to pound all the way over it 
and still float ; so we concluded we had better get the boat 
over. We had but one boat, an old thing like herself. It 
lay on the main hatch, and we tackled her, but had worked 
at her but a few minutes when Tom the cook shoved a hand- 
spike through her, ripping a plank off nearly the whole 
length, which settled all chance of escape in that direction. 
I now bethought myself of two pairs of woollen stockings I 
had bought in Antwerp and wished to save. So I went for- 
ward, but the forecastle was already half full of water, and as 
she came down on the bottom she would churn it so violently 
that it would fly out of the scuttle with force enough to 
knock you off your feet. I went aft and told them she was 
filling forward, and the mate advised the old man, who was as 
usual about two-thirds drunk, to get any valuables he might 
have in the cabin as quick as he could, for she must surely 
go down soon. My chum Tom, and Tom the cook, were 
already on their way to the main topmast crosstrees. I 
glanced forward, and had a great mind to go out on the fly- 
ing jib-boom, but fortunately for me I didn't get a chance to 
do so. She seemed to have got into a kind of deep hole ; 
for she rose and fell sluggishly on the swell once or twice 
without hitting bottom, then the next swell went clean over 



FRENCH SEAMANSHIP 151 

her. She was slowly smking under us, and never rode 
another sea after that. 

The mate shouted to the old man, " For God's sake, 
come up out of that ; she's going down ! " The cabin com- 
panionway faced to starboard and that was the lee side. I 
grabbed hold of the scuttle and swung myself round to lee- 
ward to see if he was coming. Yes, he was half-way up the 
stairs ; and the drunken old fool had risked his life to save 
three ragged old pairs of pants that a New York rag-picker 
would hardly have pulled out of an ash barrel. I was mad 
when I saw how he had been fooling away our time as well 
as his own. 

I reached out and, grasping him by the collar, said, " Come 
out o' that, you old fool ; you'll be drowned." 

He jerked himself free of my grasp and said, " Don't care 
if I be. Who be you callin' ' old fool,' you bloody Yankee?" 

Our dialogue was cut short right there ; for a little heavier 
sea than usual came along, and as she had lost about all her 
buoyancy by this time, it washed over her as if she had been 
a half- tide rock. The fore hatch blew off with a report like 
forty cannons, and down she went like the proverbial stone. 
I was washed away from the companionway, down which 
the water poured like a Niagara. The lee main rigging was 
all that saved me from going away off to sea clear of the 
schooner altogether. But as I could not get aloft on the 
lee side on account of the mainsail, it was necessary for me 
to get to windward. 

I found that the old man, strange to say, had been liter- 
ally blown out of the companionway when she went down 
by a similar blast to that which blew off the fore hatch, due 
to the compression of the air, produced by the water rush- 
ing in to fill the air space. And stranger still, I think I 
would be entitled to claim that a miracle was performed on 
behalf of that drunken, useless old skipper. 



152 ON MANY SEAS 

There was but one place on deck where he could be safe 
from going overboard during the inrush of the great sea 
which finally swamped her ; that was in the booby hatch. 
This might be described as a great inverted box that covers 
the after hatch. It is lashed down to the deck, and is used 
as a handy storage place for articles likely to be wanted at 
any time. The only entrance to it is a small scuttle hole on 
top, large enough for a man to enter it easily. It stood 
about four and a half feet above the deck, and between it 
and the companionway, where the old man was, there was 
a narrow passage not more than two feet wide. He must 
have been shot straight up into the air, and then in descend- 
ing he must have turned half round, crossed the narrow 
passage, and dropped plumb through the little scuttle hole 
into the hatch ; for there we found him as the sea went by, 
like a parson in the pulpit, as the mate said, and hanging on 
to an old North Sea chart, which was all he had left of the 
precious salvage he brought up out of the cabin with him, 
the three old pairs of pants having got away and gone off 
to join the great fleet of flotsam and jetsam, ever drifting and 
eddying about the coasts of England and France. 

You may be sure I shouted lustily for help myself down 
there to leeward. In the icy water I was so nearly frozen 
that I could hardly hang on, and I was afraid the next sea 
would take me away altogether. Fortunately, the mate was 
only as high as the shear-pole in the weather rigging, and he 
threw me the end of the gaff-topsail halyards, and with that I 
drew myself up to the booby hatch and made it fast around 
the captain ; and the mate calHng the other two Toms down 
from the crosstrees, they yanked him up just as you'd whip 
a cask of beef up out of the hold with a burton. They then 
threw me the end of the halyards again, and by a little 
assistance from them I got into the weather rigging too. 
We were now all safe, for the present anyway ; for we could, 



FRENCH SEAMANSHIP I 53 

and did, go up to the crosstrees. We were all well soaked, 
and it was bitterly cold. It was dark yet, but we could see 
less than a mile to windward of us the Dunquerque shoal light- 
ship, and away a long way to leeward Dunquerque light itself. 

We now began to canvass our prospects of escape. " If," 
said the mate, " we can only hang on here till daylight, the 
light-ship will see us, and being to windward, even if there 
is but one man aboard, which ain't likely, he can lower a boat 
and drop down to us afore the wind, and we can pull the 
boat back for him." 

I asked him if he didn't think there was danger of the 
mainmast going by the board, and of course carrying us with 
it, owing to the fact that she had been pounding her bottom 
to pieces for hours ; he said he hoped not. One thing in 
our favour was that the mast had shown no signs of going 
when she was pounding her life out ; and now that she was 
lying still on the bottom he guessed it would last our time, 
and besides all the ore in the hold was piled around the 
heel of the mainmast. " But," said he, " I'll tell you what we 
will do ; we'll cut the peak and foremast halyards and let the 
mainsail run down, and that'll ease her a bit" ; for the sail 
being set, the big channel seas ran into it, and it was enough 
to tear out several masts. 

This we accordingly did, and Liverpool Tom cut away the 
gaff-topsail altogether. Having now done all we could think 
of in the way of securing our position, we just hung on and 
froze and talked ; and we talked mighty Httle too ; for as 
the hours dragged slowly by, our hopes and our vitality 
gradually ebbed until neither stood very high. I was lowest 
in the rigging and the old man was next above me, and I 
stood with my arms round his legs and hanging on to the 
shrouds each side of him for fear that as the rum evaporated 
out of him he would fall overboard and be drowned right 
under our very noses. 



154 ON MANY SEAS 

The mate hung on to the upper end of him some way, I 
don't just know how, and the time drearily dragged along. 
After a while we saw traces of the dawn, and at last daylight 
was with us, and then I saw what a good thing it was that I 
did not have a chance to go out on the jib-boom end; for 
the tide had risen until no part of her was above water, ex- 
cept the two masts, so if I had gone out there I would have 
been drowned long before daylight. We now strained our 
eyes toward the low, almost invisible French coast, and 
again to the light-ship to windward. But still no sign of 
help appeared, and it seemed as if we were to be left, within 
plain sight of land and of human beings, to slowly perish 
from hunger and exposure, and I would look down to the 
dark green seas rolUng within a very few feet of me and 
wonder if I would at last have to let go my hold and drop 
into their cold depths. The prospect was not pleasant ; but 
as the forenoon slowly wore away and no attempt was made 
by anybody to help us, and we were unable to help our- 
selves, what could a person think? 

I don't know how it was with the rest, but I acknowledge 
that I put up a silent petition to Him who holds the sea in 
the hollow of his hand, promising that if my life was spared 
this time, I would haul my wind and shape my course here- 
after by the chart and saihng directions laid down for us 
nearly two thousand years ago by the Carpenter's Son, the 
companion of the fishermen and sailors of his day ; but 
pshaw ! it was the same old story : 

"The devil was sick, the devil a saint would be; 
The devil was well, the devil a saint was he." 

Daylight came, and hour after hour passed and no sign 
of help appeared. We could plainly see a boat swinging in 
the davits on board the hght-ship. How easy it would be 
for them to send that boat to us ! Although we could not 



FRENCH SEAMANSHIP I 55 

see any men on deck, yet they must surely have glasses, and 
could easily see us in the rigging. W/iy didn't they send 
us a boat? 

The national prejudices of our crew now showed them- 
selves, and they cursed the " bloody Frenchmen " as they 
told how quickly Enghshmen would have come to our 
rescue. Apparently we were to be left to our fate. There 
had been a time when it seemed as if I could hold on no 
longer, but now the reverse was true. I could hardly have 
let go if I had wanted to ; I had become so benumbed and 
stiffened in my position that I was almost frozen there. I 
hadn't heard a word from anybody for a long time when Liver- 
pool Tom said he could see black smoke in the direction of 
Dunquerque. We ail looked, and, sure enough, we could all 
see a steamer's smoke ; and it wasn't long before we could 
make out a small tug headed right for us, and coming like 
the wind. As they drove her full speed into the heavy 
channel seas, the solid sheets of green water would fly far 
above the top of her stack, completely burying her from 
sight for a bit. 

The Frenchmen had waited a good while, but they were 
doing their level best now. She had arrived within a quar- 
ter of a mile of us before we discovered, through the spray 
and smother, that she was followed by another just like her. 
The first one steamed around our stern, and the Frenchmen 
were all shouting and gesticulating to us as Frenchmen will ; 
but we could neither hear, nor understand if we had heard. 
So they unshipped the starboard gangway, and there they 
had a big white boat on deck, like a man-o'-war's pinnace. 
This they all grabbed hold of and shoved overboard, bows 
first, in their impetuous French way, with the very natural 
result that she half filled herself with water, and then being 
headed aft and the tug still slowly forging ahead, she worked 
her way under the paddle-box and the next lee roll of the 



156 ON MANY SEAS 

tug smashed the boat to kindUngs, calling forth the remark 
from Tummus the mate that they " launched a boat like a 
bloody lot of shoemakers." 

By this time the other tug was rapidly nearing us, and she 
had the Hfe-boat in tow. She also rounded to under our 
stern, and the captain of the life-boat shouted an order to 
his bowman, throwing both hands high up over his head, 
and the bowman, with an equally dramatic flourish, chopped 
the tow-line with one blow of a big, bright broad-axe — he 
might just as well have cast it off. The crew dropped their 
oars into the water and pulled up under our lee, and the 
bowman, after a couple of misses, caught the ratlines of our 
lee main rigging. Liverpool Tom and Tom the cook, being 
in the crosstrees, now passed over to leeward and down the 
lee rigging and into the boat. Tummus the mate and I 
now began to pull and push at the old man to get him up ; 
for we, being below the crosstrees in the weather rigging, had 
to first go up, then cross over, and down again on the lee 
side. After almost superhuman efforts we got him up, and 
the mate started down the lee side. You must understand 
that all this time the Frenchmen in the life-boat were keep- 
ing up the awfuUest clatter that you ever heard, shouting 
and chattering like a colony of monkeys. 

After a time they got the mate and the old man into the 
boat, and then it came my turn. The next time she rose on 
the crest of the wave two of them caught me by the legs, 
and down we all went together in the bottom of the boat. 
The bowman then cut loose from his grapnel just as he had 
done from the tug, and in a minute more we were alongside. 
The gangway was unshipped, and although if let alone we 
could easily have climbed aboard, yet that was not the 
French fashion ; so we were boosted up with more speed 
than style, and tumbled in on deck like so many sacks of 
potatoes. The captain of the tug asked in broken Enghsh 



FRENCH SEAMANSHIP I 57 

which was our " cappy," and on having him pointed out, 
put his arms around him and kissed him. I would not have 
kissed that dirty, bloated, stubbly-faced old Briton to have 
saved his life and my own too. But the Frenchman was so 
overjoyed that he did not mind it. They took us into the 
little cabin where there was a big, roaring fire, and it seemed 
as if I never before knew what warmth and comfort were. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Shipped to London by the Consul. — Bound for Cal- 
cutta. — Extra Work. — Reprisals. — Mutiny and its 
Result. 

We now learned why we had been left so long on the 
wreck. The boats were in the dock, and could not get out 
until the tide rose high enough for the gates to be opened. 
The tugboat captain asked us if we would have a glass of 
brandy ; and when all agreed, a search revealed the fact 
that there was only about a teaspoonful aboard, and that, of 
course, was given to the "marster"; and it must have seemed 
to him a mighty long time between drinks. 

Arrived at the consul's, we were left standing out in a 
cold, draughty courtyard, while the " marster " and the 
French captain went into the office. Having been once 
partially warmed on the tug, the re-cooling process was any- 
thing but pleasant. While we waited, a man came in, who, 
I felt sure from his magnificent appearance, must be the 
commander-in-chief of the French army, if not the Emperor 
himself. He was over six feet high, had on a cocked hat 
about two feet wide, and his breast was covered with brass 
buttons and white cords and tassels. He was armed with 
an immense sword, and was as handsome and gallant-look- 
ing a man as I have ever seen. Imagine my surprise when 
asking Liverpool Tom his opinion of the military officer's 
grade, to hear him laugh and say he was nothing but a 

158 



BLACK MARIA 1 59 

policeman ; and he was right. The magnificent creature, 
whom I had surely thought must be at least a marshal of 
France, was nothing but a gendarme. 

By and bye, after we had become tolerably well frozen 
again, the old man and the consul came to the office door 
and took a look at us. The consul I should take to be a 
man at least eighty years of age. As he stood in the door 
looking at us through his gold-rimmed spectacles, his old 
head shook and his voice quavered with the palsy as he re- 
marked, " Why, those men don't need any clothes ; they're 
not wet." 

" Ain't we ? " says Tummus the mate. " Well, if we ain't, 
we've been under water long enough to be." 

"You have, hey?" said the old fellow, as he tottered 
back into his office. When the door was closed, the mate 
remarked that we had^ been hanging on by the mainmast, 
but that the old consul was hanging on by the mizzen, and 
just about ready to drop over the taffrail. Well, at last he 
concluded to give us a dry rig and something to eat. So 
we were fitted out with a bull's wool and oakum shirt each, 
and sent to a boarding-house, where at last we got warm, 
and filled ourselves with hot soup. 

Our troubles were now astern again, except that we were 
destitute of clothes ; but then I was getting pretty well used 
to that, for it was a long time since I had owned any clothes, 
and I was becoming more and more convinced that I was 
right when I adjudged myself to be the Jonah of the old 
Hamlin; for if any Jonah could have harder luck than I 
had been indulging in since I had left the Tanjore, he was 
welcome to it as far as I was concerned. 

The consul shipped us to London and here we were paid 
off what little we had coming to us, and I got a boarding- 
house by paying a week's board in advance ; and then I 
went out and spent every cent I had for clothes. I got a 



l60 ON MANY SEAS 

suit of oilskins, sea-boots, and some underclothing. The 
captain made us pay for the miserable rags that the consul 
furnished us in Dunquerque more than we could have got 
good articles for in London ; so I didn't have very much 
money to spend for clothes or anything else. I now deter- 
mined, if I could find a ship that could bear up against my 
accursed luck, to make a "tall water" voyage, so as to get 
some clothes again. So I took a daily stroll round the 
docks to see what I could find, and finally picked out a 
little twelve-hundred ton Scotch medium clipper. She was 
an iron ship called the Oriana, built in Greenock, Captain 
Russell, and bound for Calcutta. I had a talk with the 
mate, showed him my discharge, and he gave me an order 
to the shipping master at Greene's Home to ship me for the 
voyage as ordinary seaman, at two pounds per month. 

A couple of days after we got orders to go aboard, and I 
found myself once more en route for blue water and what- 
ever luck there might be in store for me. The captain and 
all the officers were Scotch, but the crew was the usual 
motley crowd picked up in any seaport. Nothing happened 
worth recording until we arrived at the Sand Heads at the 
mouth of the Hooghly and got our pilot and leadsman, 
when the pilot informed us that all the tow-boats were 
off to the Abyssinian War ; consequently we would have to 
beat the ship all the way up to Calcutta. 

Heavens ! it was enough to make us mutiny right there ; 
for it is a hard job to tack a square-rigged ship, a job 
that is always dreaded, and to think that we had got to work 
that ship all the way up that crooked river to Calcutta under 
canvas ! It was enough to break the heart of a right whale, 
for it is a hundred and ten miles from the Sand Heads 
to Calcutta. The weather of course was tropical, and there 
probably would hardly be a mile anywhere that we could 
sail without touchinsr the braces. It would be a case of 



BLACK MARIA l6l 

continual pull and haul ; and as we could only sail with 
the tide, we would have, after saihng just as long as she 
could make headway against the ebb-tide, to anchor, clew 
up and perhaps furl the sails, and then before the expiration 
of the ebb we would have to get out again, heave up the 
anchor and get sail on her in time to catch the very first 
of the flood-tide, or if the wind was fair and strong enough 
to stem the weak ebb-tide at near slack water, we would 
need to get out enough sooner to take advantage of that 
fact. This, of course, would be the programme night and 
day until we should arrive at Calcutta. Is it any wonder 
that we made up our minds that we had struck a big con- 
tract? Well, it turned out to be fully as bad as we had 
estimated it, and worse, if anything. There is a quicksand 
called the "James and Mary's" at the junction of the 
Hooghly and Ganges ; a very dangerous place, as the chan- 
nel is always shifting with the tide. The pilots are by no 
means certain as to where they will find it, and being a 
quicksand, if her keel barely grazes it the treacherous 
bottom will rise up hke a devil-fish and heel your ship 
over until she fills and sinks, not to the bottom, but away 
down into and below the bottom. 

None but big ships ever go to Calcutta, and I have 
been told that hundreds of them have gone down in that 
little, shallow, muddy channel at the "James and Mary's." 
And where do they go? Where now is that big fleet of 
India-men that have gone down in those sands? 

After two or three days and nights of almost uninter- 
rupted and killing work, we arrived at the " James and 
Mary's," and, the wind being fair, we started to run this 
dangerous place before the ebb had quite ceased flowing. 
The men were pretty well worn out with the previous days 
and nights of ceaseless toil, so that orders could not be 
obeyed as quickly as by a fresh crew. When we were right 



1 62 ON MANY SEAS 

in the very worst place, whether he luffed her up or the wind 
headed her, I never knew ; but, at any rate, we heard him 
shout, "Lee braces ! brace up there lively now, my lads." 

" Lively ! " There wasn't a lively move in any of us. The 
consequence was that before we could get her braced up 
she caught aback, and swung over, not into the quick- 
sand, but on to the muddy bank that formed a tongue be- 
tween the two rivers. Hard and fast she went up into the 
soft mud ; but the pilot said that as she went on at low tide, 
there would be no trouble in getting her off at high water ; 
so we furled the sails, and got out a kedge ahead with a 
good stout line to it, and, by the time we were ready, it was 
nearly high water ; and, as she had now swung round so that 
our kedge was astern, we took the line to the main-deck 
capstan, and hove a strain on it ; but as she didn't offer to 
budge, we first let fall the mainsail, and then and there set 
the main topsail and topgallant sail to help back her off. 
By this time the tide was nearly high, so we hurried up and 
put luff tackles on our kedge warp, but only succeeded in 
fetching the anchor home without moving the ship an inch. 
Matters were beginning to look serious. Evidently the soft 
mud had filled in around her, and made a kind of a suction 
bed, from which we had not been able to drag her with a 
kedge anchor, even when assisted by the backing power of 
the sails. 

All that night we worked. We got out two boats, slung 
the big anchor off the port bow between them, bent the end 
of the tow-line to it, and carried it away out in the direction 
on which the pilot decided after carefully sounding from the 
boat. We let the anchor go, then came aboard again, put 
the fish tackle on the tow-line, and a luff upon that, and set- 
ting every sail that could help, we took the fall of our luff 
tackle to the windlass, and hove away on it ; and, after part- 
ing nearly every rope we had, at last, thank the good Lord, 



BLACK MARIA 1 63 

she slowly and reluctantly slid out of her mud-hole, and was 
once more afloat. By the time we got our anchor again, it 
was breakfast time. We had been at work all night, all the 
day before, and now, in about an hour, it would be time to 
make sail on her again to take advantage of another flood- 
tide. 

Just time to get breakfast ; so the mate sent us to break- 
fast, but here a new comphcation arose : there was nothing 
to eat but hard bread and coffee ; for aboard of British ships 
the meat is served out but once a day, that is at dinner. 
Each watch then gets its day's allowance of beef or pork as 
the case may be, and the men divide it among themselves, 
each man saving enough of his piece to have some for tea, 
and also for breakfast next morning ; but, owing to the long 
hours we had been working ever since we entered the river, 
the men would become hungry between meals, and eat up 
their meat before meal-times ; so there had been a good 
deal of quiet grumbling about the extra allowance of work, 
but no extra allowance of grub. On this particular morning 
it was such an aggravated case that a committee was sent 
aft to ask the old man for something to eat, as we were about 
famished. They stated the case to him respectfully, saying 
that we had been hard at work for more than twenty-four 
consecutive hours; that we had not had anything to eat since 
six o'clock the night before, were very hungry, and would get 
nothing to eat before noon unless he would give us some- 
thing for breakfast, although we had got to work all day. 

The red-headed Scotch pirate listened patiently, and then 
asked the spokesman : 

" Do ye no get your whack? " (Allowance.) 

"Yes, sir," said he; "we don't deny that we get our 
whack." 

" Weel," said the old man, " ye'U get nae mair," and 
turning on his heel he walked aft. 



1 64 ON MANY SEAS 

The committee came forward and reported, and it seemed 
to me, when I heard that, that it would not only be a justifi- 
able but a laudable act to go right down in the cabin and 
cut the throat of the inhuman brute who could return 
such an answer as that to a crew of hungry men who had 
been working like galley slaves to get his blasted old " tank " 
up that river. 

We held a council of war, and finally agreed among our- 
selves that we would work the ship as far as Garden Reach, 
twelve miles below Calcutta, and well within the boundaries 
of Oriental civilization. This we would do for our own con- 
venience, but nothing more. We wouldn't wash down or 
even sweep the decks, we would only coil the braces and 
halyards on deck, not on the pins, and we would do no more 
clewing up or furling of sails at anchor, unless it came on to 
blow or looked bad. We got the mate forward and informed 
him of our determination, told him nobody should be put in 
irons, as we were all ringleaders, and one was as deep in it 
as another. He advised us to be careful what we did, as 
refusing duty was a serious matter ; but we told him there 
wasn't a jail in the civilized world that would work us thirty 
or forty hours a day and then refuse to give us anything to 
eat. He went aft and reported to the old man, who appar- 
ently paid no attention to it ; but I noticed that although we 
did just as we agreed to, still the officers continued to order 
the work done the same as usual, and when we paid no 
attention to them they simply took no notice. I suppose as 
each of these cases represented a dumb refusal of duty, they 
were making out a case against us. But what did w^e care ? 
we might as well hang for a sheep as a lamb, and we knew 
we were in for it now anyhow. 

The ship not being quite full of cargo, the old man had 
bought a private venture of his own, consisting of cases of 
fine wines and liquors, cigars, cheeses, and such like luxuries. 



BLACK MARIA I 65 

which he had stowed down in the forward 'tween-decks. 
During the course of the long outward passage, the existence 
and approximate locahty of the old man's venture had be- 
come an open secret, and we were resolved among our- 
selves that before we went to jail we'd have a taste of the 
good things the old man had down there, thereby killing two 
birds with one stone ; /. e. treating ourselves, and knocking 
the old man's profits " galley west " at the same time ; for- 
getting, simple mariners that we were, that he could not only 
take it out of our pay, but also that he could charge us any 
price he saw fit, and with any quantity of the goods. But 
bless you, Jack doesn't bother to go into such petty details 
as all that ; he wouldn't enjoy his vengeance if he did. 

On entering the river the hatches had been taken off to 
ventilate the hold, but down in the 'tween-decks the hatch- 
way was separated from the cargo-room by stout gratings, 
made close enough to preclude all possibility of a grown man 
getting through them, and so strong that there was not the 
slightest danger of their being broken. I was a thin wiry 
chap in those days, and I believed I could get through 
that grating. I measured the size of the open squares, and 
made one of the same size, which I tried to get through by 
taking off all my clothes. I got through it all right ; but as 
mine was not rigidly fastened together, it worked a little in 
passing over my shoulders and hips and so left an element of 
doubt in my mind as to how I would make out when I came 
to tackle the genuine grating, which wouldn't give any more 
than if it was built of iron. So, in order to eliminate, as far 
as possible, all elements of doubt, I resolved to tackle it 
fasting, and to grease myself well, as the East Indian thugs 
are said to do. 

There was no trouble about the fasting part ; for that was 
our normal condition, anyway. We arrived at Garden 
Reach, where the British government kept the Kingof Oude 



1 66 ON MANY SEAS 

imprisoned in a magnificent palace, the water-front of which 
was said to be guarded by Hve Bengal tigers. Early in the 
morning, before da3dight, and while all hands were busy 
getting the sail off of her and getting her anchored, I slipped 
unperceived down the fore hatch, taking with me a slush 
bucket to grease myself. After an almost endless job of 
squirming and writhing, I found myself through the grating 
and in the old man's treasure-house. 

I reached out and got my sheath-knife and a marline- 
spike that I had laid within handy reach, and proceeded to 
quietly open such boxes as came to hand. The first, as 
I judged by the feeling, contained macaroni. This I of 
course rejected as unsuitable for our requirements. Then 
I opened a case of long sweet crackers ; these were very 
palatable, and being hungry I sampled them at once, and 
set the box down close to the grating for future delivery. 
Then came a nice cheese done up in tin-foil. This I also 
made sure of by the certain test of eating a big slice. I 
thought I needed something to wash down this dry proven- 
der, for though awfully good it stuck in my throat ; so I 
went to another part of the deck, and here, sure enough, 
the first box I opened was filled with bottled ale. Two 
bottles, one after the other, I immediately decapitated and 
absorbed their contents without a pang. I was now feehng 
quite chipper. Any quakings or misgivings that I might 
have felt at first disappeared entirely, and I went at my job 
with a good heart. I had now evidently struck the right 
spot; for I opened case after case of long slim-necked 
bottles, which I knew must contain fine wines, a rare tipple 
for a crew of " lime-juice " sailors. Others again, I judged 
by their shape, were brandy, and I even found a couple of 
cases of those short-necked, high-shouldered, square-faced 
fellows, known at sight the world over to contain Holland's 
gin. I piled my treasures handy to the grating, and was so 



BLACK MARIA I 6/ 

elated at my find, and so busy in accumulating, that I sup- 
pose I must have neglected the caution with which I com- 
menced the search ; for presently I heard a voice out in the 
hatch say, " Hey, Fred, don't make so much noise in there ; 
you'll 'ave hall the bloody hafterguards down on top of us. 
'Ave you found hanythink yet?" 

" Have I found anything? Well, I should say so." And 
I began to pass the plunder out to him, and he to another 
on deck, until they cried, " Hold, enough." " We'll all be 
bloody well 'ung for this." But I told them they might as 
well take all I had ; there wasn't much more, anyway. So 
I passed it all out, and then asked the fellow outside the 
grating to hand me the slush pot and help me out. And it 
was well I did so ; for the bunch of samples I had taken had 
enlarged my diameter so much that what was a tight fit 
before became now almost a hopeless case. I couldn't get 
out alone, and he couldn't pull me out. So he went on 
deck and got more help. While he was gone, I again 
greased myself, and also the sides of the hole through which 
I must pass, and by the time he returned with another man 
I had wriggled my head and shoulders through, and they 
took hold of my two hands and braced themselves ready 
for a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull together. I 
admonished them to be a little careful, as there was nothing 
between my hide and the rough edges of the grating but a 
Httle cold slush. 

" But you know we've got to get you out, lad," said one 
of them, and I mentally cursed my folly for having so 
thoughtlessly indulged my appetite while still on the wrong 
side of that infernal grating. 

They must have had a previous understanding between 
themselves ; for without another word to me they settled 
back with a vim, and, heavens and earth ! I thought they 
would haul me apart. As I felt the skin scraping off my 



1 68 ON MANY SEAS 

body and thighs, and my spinal column stretched to the 
breaking point, I let a yell out of me that would have 
knocked a geordie collier aback. This determined them, 
if anything more had been needed, and with one more 
mighty pull they yanked me through, and dropping me as 
limp as a wet swab they scrambled up on deck. From 
where I lay half dead I heard the second mate ask what all 
the row was about. 

Somebody told him that one of the boys had stubbed his 
bare toe into a link of the chain-cable, and " beefed out 
like a stuck pig." 

He was apparently satisfied, and went aft again ; and a 
bowhne was sent down to me, and I was pulled up on deck, 
about half dead. By this time all hands had sampled the 
results of my efforts, and were in a very pleasant and kindly 
frame of mind, especially towards me, who had suffered in 
the good cause ; so they gathered round me and consoled 
me with pannikins of choice spirits, until I presently felt 
myself to be a hero instead of a martyr, and " gloried in my 
shame." It was now daylight, and we were supposed to be 
at breakfast ; but salt beef and hard bread had no charms 
for us this particular morning, z^n Irishman, Paddy Byrnes, 
picked up the knotty, gnarly piece of mahogany that repre- 
sented our breakfast in the beef kid, and holding it aloft, 
apostrophized it in this manner : 

" ' Old horse, old horse, what brought you here?' 
' After hauling stone this many a year, 
From Dubhn town to Ballyhack, 
'Twas there, kind sir, I broke me back. 
Me master, when he heard the news, 
Said, " Salt him down for sailors' use." 
Between the mainmast and the pumps, 
They cut me up in four-pound junks. 
The sailors they do me despise, 
They heave me down, and damn me eyes.' " 



BLACK MARIA 1 69 

And suiting the action to the word, Paddy fired the piece 
of beef out through the forecastle door, just in time to hit 
the second mate fair in the face, as he sung out, " Turn to 
there, men ! " 

This naturally exasperated the mate ; and, being a plucky 
httle fellow, he breached in through the forecastle door, 
and demanded to know who threw that piece of beef. 
" I did," said Paddy. And with that he hit him with his 
fist, and sent him fluking against the windlass bit. Half a 
dozen of them now jumped on to the poor mate, kicking 
and thumping him ; for you may be sure there were lots 
of old scores to be paid off, and when would such another 
opportunity occur? They were just primed enough to enjoy 
it immensely. After they had mauled him to their hearts' 
content, they picked him up by the legs and arras, and 
carrying him to the forecastle door, they swung him to the 
tune of one, two, three, and fired him bodily out on deck, 
just as the mate, who had been notified by one of the 
apprentices that the crew were murdering the second mate, 
came flying round the corner of the house, with a cocked 
revolver in each hand. The second mate, in his involuntary 
flight, knocked the mate down, and both his revolvers went 
off; but the only harm done was by one of the bullets 
entering the pig-pen and chipping a little piece out of poor 
Dennis's snout, who started round his pen, squeaking as if 
his heart was broken. 

The crew, hearing the fusillade, and imagining themselves 
attacked by the artillery, sallied forth, armed with handspikes, 
marlinespikes, old sea-boots, windlass norraans, and anything 
they could lay their hands on, and drove the two mates 
"aft where they belonged," and returning forward, celebrated 
their victory in fresh bumpers of the captain's liquor. As 
it was evident that the officers had lost all control of the 
crew, the old man hailed a dingy and went ashore ; and 



I/O ON MANY SEAS 

along towards evening he came aboard again, with a strong 
posse of poHce. 

In the meantime, the crew, throwing all pretence of 
secrecy to the winds, had gone below and smashed the 
grating and helped themselves to whatever they could find, 
breaking and destroying twice as much as they used, and 
getting themselves into a glorious state of helpless drunk- 
enness. 

The police rounded us up, and took us ashore in their 
boats, and there they had three carriages of the variety 
known as "Black Maria." Into these they hustled us, and 
that was the way I made my first triumphal entry into 
Calcutta. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Six Weeks in Jail. — I fall sick but stay by the Ship 
AND sail for London. 

The next morning we were taken to court, charged with 
rank insubordination, refusing duty, and broaching cargo. 
The magistrate merely glanced at us, said, "Six weeks to 
jail with 'em," and leaned back in his seat, motioning the 
punkahwallah to pull the punkah. 

An Irish-American, one of our crew, by the name of 
Mike Dolan, said : " Hold on a bit, judge, you haven't 
heard our story. Do you call that British justice? " 

" No," said the judge ; " if I were to give you British 
justice or any other kind of justice, I'd hang the whole lot of 
you." And repeating " To jail with 'em," he waved us out of 
his presence. The Black Maria was again called into ser- 
vice, and took us to a building over the entrance to which 
were carved the words " Presidency Gaol." In the building 
I put in six weeks of almost uninterrupted comfort. The 
sailors, not being considered criminals, are treated with 
great leniency. At the time of which I write, our workshop 
was a large yard, part of which was covered by an iron shed 
raised some ten or a dozen feet from the ground, making as 
cool and airy a place as it was possible to have in such a 
hot country as India. 

We made " sword mats," which were about five feet wide, 
and as they were rolled up on a windlass as fast as woven, 

171 



172 ON MANY SEAS 

I do not know how long they were. Fifteen feet was a 
day's work for two men, and by hustUng we could do it 
in five or six hours. Our cell doors were opened as soon 
as it was daylight, and we would get to work in the cool 
of the morning and finish our task before it got too hot. 
Then we would have all the rest of the day to do what we 
chose ; and among so many sailors (there were over seventy 
of us) there was naturally a great diversity of talent. There 
would be singing and jig dancing, sparring, wrestling, foot 
races, cutlass drill with broomsticks, and all manner of sports 
and games, varied by an occasional fight ; for though the 
majority were genuine " hme-juicers," there were a few 
Yankee sailors who would once in a while take up the slurs 
that the Englishmen so freely distributed. 

One man was appointed by the turnkey boatswain of the 
yard, a Liverpool Irishman and a good-natured fellow 
enough generally, but with a great contempt for everything 
tainted in the slightest degree with Yankeeism ; and as he 
was not the least bit backward about expressing his opinion, 
he and Mike Dolan, who was making his first voyage in an 
English ship, frequently had some pretty warm arguments. 

A favourite saying of the big boatswain's was that the 
religion he had been brought up by taught him to buck and 
fight his own way ever since he was big enough to run 
alone. He made use of this expression one day during an 
argument between himself and Dolan. He had been find- 
ing fault with Dolan's work, saying he never saw a bloody 
Yankee yet that was any good at anything. Dolan dropped 
his end of the "sword" and, whirling round on his heel, said : 

"You weigh a hundred pounds more than I do; but you 
great, big, dirty, lemon-pelting sucker, if you'll come out 
behind the wash-house with me, I'll thump more common 
sense into you in five minutes than you ever had in your 
life before." 



PRESIDENCY GAOL 1 73 

"You are just the man I'm looking for," said the boat- 
swain ; " I'd never forgive myself if I left this jail without 
licking a Yankee." So all hands adjourned to the back of 
the wash-house, where a ring was speedily formed, and the 
champions of England and America, puUing off their shirts, 
jumped in and faced each other. The boatswain was a good 
deal the larger, but he was rather fat and clumsy ; while 
Dolan, though several inches shorter and many pounds 
lighter, looked like a sculptor's model, and he danced round 
that big beef-eater like a cooper round a cask, putting in 
good, straight, quick punches until he had the boatswain so 
mixed up that before he could look round for him he 
would get a punch from somewhere else. The natural 
result was that almost before he knew it, the Briton was 
bhnded and his face and breast covered with blood. He 
finally sat down on the ground in a kind of a dazed way, and 
as he offered no resistance, Dolan quit punching him and 
asked him if he had got enough. 

The boatswain looked up at him through the blood and 
dirt, and out of his half-closed eyes, and said : " Don't I 
look as if I had enough? Do you think I'm a bloody 'og?" 

For a long time after that it was not nearly as fashionable 
to slur the Yankees as it had been ; but the boatswain be- 
came, if possible, more overbearing and mean in his manner 
towards us. He found fault with our work, and was continu- 
ally reporting us to the turnkey. I being somewhat boyish, 
and one of the accursed "Yanks," he pitched upon me more 
than on men like Dolan, whom he had found were good 
men to leave alone. I was getting pretty well exasperated 
myself, and some of the men had told me to hit him if I 
wanted to, and they would see that I didn't get hurt very 
much. I had several times dined on bread and water, as 
the result of his lying reports; so when one day he brought 
the turnkey over to where I was at work, and told him 



174 ON MANY SEAS 

something would have to be done with me, as he couldn't 
get a proper day's work out of me, I spoke up and asked of 
what I was guilty. 

He reeled off a long string of petty and false charges until 
I could stand it no longer ; and, calling him an infernal Har, 
I gave him a good square bang right in the nose. As this 
was done in the presence of the turnkey, it could neither be 
overlooked nor denied ; so he reported me to the governor, 
and I was sentenced to solitary confinement and oakum 
picking for a week, with twenty minutes on the treadmill 
daily by way of exercise. I could no more pick the quan- 
tity of oakum allotted to me daily than I could take that big 
stone jail on my back and fly away with it. According to 
the rules, if I fliiled to pick my full daily allowance, I was 
obliged to spend another day in the oakum cell ; the pros- 
pect was that I should finish my term there. The treadmill 
exercise was not what I should have chosen, if the choice 
had been left to me, and presently I was down with dysen- 
tery, as the result of unwholesome diet, and I reported 
myself sick, and was transferred to the jail hospital. 

As my time expired before I got well, I never went back 
to the oakum cell. On returning to the ship, it was given 
out that any of us who wanted money and liberty could 
have it ; a gentle hint to draw all your wages and get out. 

I had undertaken the voyage on purpose to get myself 
clothed, and I didn't care to go ashore in Calcutta, spend 
what few dollars I had, and then shipping again arrive in 
England with only a couple of month's pay to take. So the 
rest of the crew bid me good-bye and went ashore. I 
promptly reported myself sick and declined to work. The 
ship's doctor, who comes aboard every morning in Calcutta, 
had to admit that I was sick, and prescribed for me the usual 
dose, — cunjee (or rice) water, and a pill as big as the end of 
your thumb. So I loafed around the forecastle, and was not 



PRESIDENCY GAOL 1 75 

sorry when our homeward-bound crew came aboard, and 
leaving Calcutta astern we once more got under way for 
London town. 

Among our new crew was an old man not less than sixty 
years of age, who was sick with the same disease that I had. 
Of course he was unable to work and had to report himself 
sick at once. When the mate found out what was the matter 
with him he jawed him and asked him if he thought this was 
a hospital ship. The poor old man said he wanted to go 
home ; he was afraid he would die if he stayed out in India 
any longer. 

The mate said he had no business to saddle himself onto 
a ship's crew, when he knew he was unable to do duty. 

" Excuse me, sir," said the old man, " but perhaps I won't 
be in the way so very long ; " and the next afternoon he was 
seen to climb painfully upon the forecastle, and drop quietly 
off the cathead. A man who was at work on the fore topsail 
yard sang out " man overboard ! " The red-headed Scotch 
captain went to the lee rail, looked at the man floating by, 
and without a word resumed his walk on the weather side 
of the poop. 

The roll was called, and the name to which nobody an- 
swered was presumed to be his. His chest was brought aft, 
and the mate auctioned off the few poor things that he had. 
I myself bought the empty chest; and "finis" was written 
across the last page of the log-book of a British seaman. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Sick with Scurvy. — Brutal Treatment. — The Hospital 
Ship. — Discharged " Cured," and Paid off. 

Shortly after leaving Calcutta, and feeling somewhat 
restored by the pure sea air, I " turned to " of my own 
accord. I soon observed a slight soreness in the hollow of 
my right knee. I paid no attention to it ; but it gradually 
grew worse, and my leg began to draw up so that I had to 
walk on my toes. The second mate, in whose watch I was, 
noticed it and asked me what was the matter. I told him 
all I knew about it, and he advised me to go to the old man 
and get a dose of salts. So I went to him and asked for 
salts. 

He poked my legs, first one and then the other, and said : 
" I'll gie ye the salts, but it'll do ye na guid ; for it's the 
scurvy ye've got." 

I asked him to give me an extra allowance of lime juice 
then. He said he had only enough to give all hands their 
"whack," and he was not going to rob all hands for me. 

So I took my dose of salts and went forward with the ex- 
tremely comforting assurance that at the very beginning of 
a long passage — we had not yet reached Mauritius — I had 
got the scurvy. I had heard enough about the disease to 
know that it was as impossible to cure it at sea as it was to 
bale out the ocean with a crab-net. I knew that every day 
that I remained at sea I should be worse than I was the day 

176 



SCURVY 177 

before. In other words, the disease is as surely progressive 
under favouring conditions as are the seasons of the year, 
and its only termination is death. The only cure is to get 
ashore and eat vegetables, especially potatoes, raw ones if 
you can. Consequently the problem resolves itself into this 
one question — Will you live to reach the land? If you do, 
and are not so far gone, so thoroughly rotten, that the reaction 
kills you at once, you will live. The fact of the disease 
having attacked me so early in the passage of course reduced 
my chances of survival to almost nothing. I was advised by 
the old sailors not to give up as long as I could keep my 
feet, for physical exercise, they said, was one of the best 
things in the world to fight scurvy with ; so I worked as long 
as I could, but my legs, feet, and whole body swelled up, 
and the flesh got dead and turned bluish. 

Big dark-red sores came out on me. My gums swelled 
up so that they almost covered my teeth, and they were 
black and soft and sore. My jaws were so swollen that they 
stuck out on each side of me hke the bilges of an old- 
fashioned man-of-war; and every joint in my body was 
racked with the most excruciating pains, like jumping 
toothache. 

As long as the weather remained fine, I kept the deck ; 
and after I got so that I couldn't walk, I would swing my- 
self from one belaying-pin to another, and shake my fist at 
the captain and yell insane curses at him, of which he took 
not the slightest notice. But I know he enjoyed my misery ; 
for he wouldn't allow me a single drop of hme juice except 
what I was entitled to by act of Parliament. When my 
mouth got so sore and swollen that I must have spoon 
victuals or nothing, the steward asked permission to cook 
me some sago and arrowroot. 

" Give him whatever is in the medicine chest," said the 
old man, " but none of the cabin stores." 

N 



1/8 ON MANY SEAS 

He refused to allow me any potatoes, even while they 
were yet plentiful aft, saying there was nothing in the act 
that compelled him to. Of course I knew he hoped to see 
me linger out a few miserable weeks and then die. As we 
got down towards the latitude of the Cape, into the bad 
weather, I had to take to my bunk, and the men would 
block me off with blankets and clothes, so that the heave 
of the ship could not rack my poor joints ; for the disease 
had progressed to that stage now where I felt no pain if I 
kept perfectly still. 

I lay in a kind of half stupor for weeks. When the stew- 
ard had a chance he would bring me some of the leavings 
from the captain's table, — soups, puddings, and such things, 
which I could swallow ; and I believe to this day that I owe 
my life to the kindly interest taken in me by that Scotch 
steward. 

The day that we passed St. Helena, where Bonaparte died 
in exile, we discovered a sail astern, a very unusual place to 
raise a sail. All that day and night she gained on us, and 
the next afternoon she was abeam, and proved to be the 
ship Roxboroiigli Castle, of London, one of Dicky Greene's 
old frigate-built ships, bound from Bombay to Liverpool. 
As she was a passenger ship, she had a doctor, and Captain 
Russell asked her captain to let him come aboard and see 
me ; so she lowered a boat and sent her doctor to us. I 
was carried out on deck and propped up on the main hatch, 
while the doctor stared at me through his eyeglasses, and, 
by advice of our captain, poked deep holes in my swollen 
legs with his finger, which wouldn't fill up again for several 
minutes. He knew almost half as much of the science of 
medicine as our ship's pig ; for, after staring at me blankly 
for a while, he turned to the old man and said, " He has the 
gaoutr Even the grim Scotchman had to smile. I asked 
the learned physician if "gaout^'' was not the penalty paid 



SCURVY 179 

for too much high Hving. He said it was, and I told him it 
was not exactly my case. Then the old man told him that 
I had the scurvy; that the only thing that would do me any 
good was raw potatoes, and if they had any to spare he 
would be obliged, etc. And this young doctor returned to 
his ship, and soon back came the boat with a two-bushel 
sack of potatoes. I saw them hauled in over the rail by the 
end of the topsail brace, and carried aft, and that was the 
last that I ever saw of them. Captain Russell took them 
into his own stateroom, and gave them out to the steward 
two and three at a time, to be cooked for his own private 
use, not even the first mate getting a smell ; and he had 
potatoes left yet when we hauled into the Victoria docks in 
London. 

Christmas Day we were running before a fine westerly gale 
for the mouth of the . channel. We had been hove to for 
forty-eight hours ; for, though we had sighted Fayal in the 
Azores, the Scotchman was afraid to run because the sun 
was obscured and he couldn't get an observation. So he 
lay to under lower main topsail and fore topmast staysail, 
and let the fine fair wind blow away while he waited for the 
sun to come out so he could find out where he was. Not 
much like Captain Hurlburt in the old Tanjore. Early 
Christmas morning, a little topsail schooner — one of the 
fleet of chppers known as " Western Island Fruiters " — 
came flying along before the w^ind like a little butterfly, 
and, seeing the big ship hove to, I suppose they thought 
there must be something the matter with her ; so they 
kindly ran under our stern and hailed. After finding out 
where we were from, and where bound, the skipper asked 
us what was the matter. 

" Nothing," said Russell. 

" Well," said the schooner skipper, " what are ye hove to 
for?" 



l8o ON MANY SEAS 

Russell told him he wanted to get a " sight " to find his 
position. 

" FoUer me, you blahsted fool," said the skipper, and put- 
ting up his helm he left us. It must have been the sight of 
that little schooner running so confidently that shamed him, 
for he squared away and made sail at once. The cook had 
killed the pig the day before, so we were to have fresh meat, 
that is, baked pork and plum duff, with sauce, for our Christ- 
mas dinner. Although I could not eat much of anything, I 
looked forward with great anticipations to the fresh meat 
which I was anxious to taste. When the watch was called 
at half-past eleven, she was running dead before it, and roll- 
ing both rails under ; for iron ships are proverbially wet. 
Some call them "diving bells." Three men went to the 
galley : one for the duff, one for the pork, and the other 
for the duff sauce. 

They got their grub and started forward. Just as they 
got nicely clear of the deck-house, where there was nothing 
to protect them, she gave a heavy roll to port, scooping up 
several tons of water over the rail ; then she rolled as far to 
starboard, doing the same trick again. And now the decks 
being full of water level with both rails, a big sea raised her 
stern high in air. The fellow who had the pork yelled 
for somebody to open the door, and somebody did, with 
the result that as her stern went up the three men with the 
grub and a tidal wave of salt water all came into the fore- 
castle together. 

Oh, what a merry Christmas that was ! The whole watch 
were sitting on their chests waiting for their dinner, or per- 
haps some were not entirely dressed when that green sea 
came in. It washed all the men and chests up into the 
eyes of her, and drowned out all the lower bunks. The 
pork and duff went somewhere. The sauce, of course, dis- 
appeared entirely. Every man was soaked, and so was 



SCURVY 1 8 I 

every rag of clothing belonging to the whole watch, except 
the bedding in the upper bunks, and that was pretty well 
wet from the splashing. Fortunately, I had the upper bunk 
next the door, so that it all went by me, and I escaped the 
splashing caused by the sudden stoppage of the water by 
the bows. After the flood had subsided, there came a 
jawing match. 

" Who hollered to open that door ? " " No." " But what 
bloody fool opened it?" 

So and so. 

" You're a liar ! " 

I thought there would be a general row, but they were 
too wet and too cold and disheartened to fight about any- 
thing. They pulled their chests out from under each other, 
satisfied themselves that they didn't own a dry stitch for a 
change, and then, fishing out the pork and duff from under 
the bunks, threw the latter overboard, and made a sorry 
Christmas dinner on semi-saturated fresh pork and hard- 
tack. 

As soon as we got on soundings, I began to suffer tortures. 
The pains which had heretofore only bothered me when 
the motion of the ship caused my body to move, now 
became continuous, and seemed to penetrate every joint in 
my body. I got no relief as long as I remained on board. 
Arrived in the Victoria dock, two of the men promised to 
send their boarding-house master down to take me ashore 
the next morning, and I was locked up in the forecastle all 
alone that night. And a long night it was. I suffered with 
cold, scurvy pains, and hunger. But even the longest night 
must end sometime, and hours and hours after daylight, as 
it seemed to me, somebody came pounding on the forecastle 
door, and a voice called out : " Hey, is there hany one in 
'ere ? " It was some time before I could make myself 
heard, on account of the swollen condition of my mouth, as 



1 82 ON MANY SEAS 

well as my weakness, and I was afraid he would go away 
and leave me. But at last I made him hear and understand 
that he could get the keys from the ship-keeper. When he 
came back, I saw he was a big, hearty, good-natured, one- 
armed man, and he had a cart-driver with him. 

He advised me to come home to his house ; but I pre- 
ferred to act on the advice of my shipmates, and go to the 
old Dreadnaiiglit free hospital ship at Deptford. He and 
the driver lifted me out of my bunk as carefully as they 
could, nearly killing me in the operation. They dressed 
me, after a fashion, and carried me ashore in their arms. 
On being brought into the air, I promptly fainted, and they 
laid me down on a bale of goods on the deck to bring me 
to again. Naturally, a crowd collected, and when I opened 
my eyes the first thing I saw was a gentleman standing by 
my side. 

"Do you belong to the Oriana, my lad?" said he. 

" Yes, sir," said I. 

" Can you tell me where Captain Russell is?" 

" No, sir ; but I hope he is in hell." 

"Ah," said he, and went to look for him. 

Having " come to," I was loaded into a wagon and cov- 
ered with a horse blanket, for it was a bitter cold day, and 
the driver started for the hospital ship. Having been paid 
in advance, he drove round to all the " Publics " where he 
was acquainted and stopped at every one to refresh, and as 
he found friends in each one, of course a series of treatings 
had to be gone through. When he reached the congenial 
and talkative stage, he would bring his friends, or any one 
else who chose to come, out to the wagon to see me, and he 
would deliver an entirely original lecture on scurvy, and 
how it was brought on by the poor sailors eating too much 
of the salt meat furnished by the " howners." 

" Why," said he, " you and me, mateys, thinks ourselves 



SCURVY 183 

mighty lucky if we gets a bit o' saveloy once or twice a day 
to eat with our 'arf a quartern, loaf; but these sailors, they 
eats their five an' six pounds of the finest of corned beef, 
and bacon, and 'ams, hevery bloomink day, and then they 
does nothink but sit around in the warm sun hall day long 
singin' songs an' drinkin' of their grog. My heye ! no won- 
der they gets sick, that's wot I say ; an' then 'e comes ashore 
'ere, an' I 'ave to drive 'im hall the way down to Deptford 
for 'arf a crown. I say, matey, 'ave you ary fourpenny bit 
about you? I'd like to treat a couple of my friends to a 
pot of hold hale." 

What with the jolting over the stones and the long-con- 
tinued freezing, I was about worn out when he finally reached 
the landing and transferred me to a boat which took me off 
to the old ex-man-of-war. 

I have heard that she was with Nelson at Trafalgar. 
If she was not there, at any rate she was no doubt some- 
where in those days ; for she was an old-timer. She stood 
up out of water like a block of houses, and was short 
and broad as though she had been built on the same lines 
as John Bull himself. She, with the old Victoij, Nelson's 
flagship lying in Portsmouth, were about the last remaining 
representatives of England's once famous " wooden walls." 

Our approach was seen ; so when we arrived at the land- 
ing stage alongside, we found two " convalescents " ready 
with a stretcher ; for I not being able to ascend the gang- 
way ladder, they carried me directly in through a false port 
cut in her side, and set me down under the main hatch, 
where there was a four-legged sling hooked to a tackle and 
hanging down from above. They shpped the eye that was 
in the end of each leg over each of the four handles of my 
stretcher. The word was given, and another crew of " con- 
valescents " hoisted me up to the medical deck. She was a 
" five-decker," and the different decks were known as the 



184 ON MANY SEAS 

spar, berth, medical, surgical, and orlop decks. My stretcher 
was carried out in the wing and set down alongside the bed 
I was to occupy, and a couple of "convalescents" pro- 
ceeded to strip me, preparatory to putting me into hospital 
rig. I think I have already mentioned the fact that my 
jaws were swollen so that they stood out on each side of my 
head, and also that ever since we arrived on soundings I had 
been in continual pain, from the top of my head to the soles 
of my feet. Bearing these facts in mind, you can imagine 
my feelings when the fellow who was behind me, without 
unbuttoning my shirt at the collar, pulled it up over my 
head, and tried to get it off. At the first pull it nearly 
killed me ; and when it didn't come, instead of looking 
for the cause of trouble, he simply appealed to the English- 
man's " right bower " main strength and buU-headedness, 
and, slacking back, he gave three or four quick, hearty jerks, 
each one of which seemed to rend my entire system apart, 
and you may be sure I was not a bit mealy-mouthed in my 
expostulations. But being handicapped by my sore mouth, 
and also by the fact that I was muffled in the shirt which he 
had pulled up over my head, I was not able to make a very 
loud outcry, and besides, I suppose being a sailor himself, my 
language did not have much effect ; so he simply kept up the 
torture until the medical deck steward, in passing that way, 
accidently recognized the import of some of the muffled 
sounds proceeding from the interior of the shirt, and stop- 
ping in front of me he said sharply, " Pull down that shirt." 
The shirt being down, he then stooped over until he could 
look me in the face, and said, " Look here, young man, what 
kind of language is that you are using ? If you are not 
careful, you'll be expelled before you are fairly entered 
here." I told him I didn't care ; I had just as lief be 

expelled as to have my head pulled off by a d fool 

that hadn't sense enough to unbutton my shirt collar before 



SCURVY 185 

he tried to pull my shirt off. Reahzing that I had good 
cause for complaint, the steward ordered them to be more 
careful, and passed on. 

I remained seven weeks aboard the old Dreadtiaught, and 
though it was a charity hospital, especially in my case, for 
I afterwards learned that all maritime nations except the 
United States contributed to its support, yet the service 
was as good as one could wish. The doctors and nurses 
were attentive and kindly, and it was the privilege of pa- 
tients to join the convalescent squad if they chose, on being 
discharged from the wards as cured. While in this squad, 
they were only required to do light, clean work, and as 
they got an abundance of food, it enabled them to regain 
their strength, so that on going ashore they were fit to go 
to sea at once. 

I did not join the convalescents, for having a pay-day 
coming I preferred to spend my convalescent period at 
large ; so when the doctor gave me permission to go, I 
walked up to the captain's office and got my discharge, for 
everything was done in a shipshape manner, the captain 
being an old naval officer. 

The boarding master, who had been very kind and atten- 
tive while I had been in hospital, lived in Poplar, and 
having his address I went directly there and found him and 
his family to be very pleasant people. The next thing was 
to get my money, and I went down to the shipping office ; 
but they told me I would have to bring an order from the 
mate or captain to prove my identity. So I hunted up the 
ship and found the mate aboard, who said certainly he 
would give me an order, and he brought me out an order 
requesting the paymaster to pay to the bearer any wages 
that might be due to Edward B. Williams. I told him I 
couldn't get my money on that, as my name was not Ed- 
ward, but Frederick. " No," said he, " your name is not 



1 86 ON MANY SEAS 

Frederick, it is Edward, and I have got it so in the log. 
All that trouble in Calcutta is logged to Edward B. Williams, 
and that's your name." I told him I guessed I knew my 
own name, and I also told him how the mistake came to be 
made. The first day out from London, the second mate 
asked me my name. I was putting the lee main tack in the 
beckets and he was on deck, and I answered, " Fred, sir." 

"Ned? "said he. 

"Yes, sir," said I, and all the voyage after that I was 
known as " Ned." 

Although I couldn't persuade the thick-headed Scotch 
mate that I knew my own name better than he did, yet I 
finally coaxed him to make out the order to the name 
I wanted. And so I got my money, minus a good big slice 
which I had to pay for the Calcutta "jamboree" but, at all 
events, it was the biggest and almost the only pay-day I had 
ever had. First of all, I fitted myself out with a good lot 
of clothes once more, and the Lord knows my experience 
had been such that I ought to have known a sailor's needs. 
Then I took in some of the sights of London. 



CHAPTER XX 

I SHIP FOR Another Long Voyage. — The Stormy Cape. 
— A Big Sea. — Broken Ribs and Rude Surgery. 

I determined to go " tall water " again, in hope of another 
pay-day ; but, alas ! it was destined to be a good while 
between pay-days with me again. During my perambula- 
tions about the docks, I came across a Uttle brig called the 
Coquette, of Bristol. She was bound to Victoria, Van- 
couver's Island ; and, as that was about the longest voyage 
possible from London, I shipped in her, and, bidding my 
boarding-house friends, including the daughter of the house, 
a tearful adieu, I sailed from London, expecting to be gone a 
year or fifteen months ; but this old world rolled round the 
sun half a dozen times before I came back to London, and 
the friends bade good-bye to then, I never saw or heard of 
more. 

The brig's crew consisted of captain, mate, second mate, 
cook, and five men before the mast. The old man had never 
been farther than the West Indies before. The mate and 
two of the foremast hands belonged to Plymouth, and I 
heard lots of west country yarns while aboard the brig. 

We sauntered along to the southward, and all went well. 
We had our allowance of grub, which was all we had any 
occasion to expect ; it was edible. The officers did not ill- 
use us. The old man was afraid of the Horn ; so, instead of 
scraping along the eastern coast of Patagonia and taking the 

187 



1 88 ON MANY SEAS 

first fair slant of wind to slip around the most difficult corner, 
and then bear away into the Pacific, as an old Cape Horner 
would have done, he kept away off to the southward, and 
hundreds of miles to the eastward, until we found ourselves 
in a good place for a long Cape Horn fight. And here we 
had it with a vengeance. It was two solid months from the 
time he attempted to make westing before we were able to 
keep away for the Pacific. 

Two months off the Horn ! Can you realize what that 
means? Two months of cold and wet and discomfort. 
Living almost entirely on hard bread and water; for the 
cook's galley went by the board almost the first gale we got 
into, taking with it all the cooking utensils. So that all the 
cooked food we got after that was once in a while a little 
lukewarm coffee made on the cabin stove. What with the 
pitching and pounding, the deck took to leaking over the 
forecastle, so that we did not even have a dry place to crawl 
into when our four hours on deck expired. As a result of 
being continually wet night and day, we broke out in sores and 
boils all over our bodies, and our hands and fingers became 
covered with deep and sore cracks known to sailors as " sea- 
cuts." These will remain open as long as you are at sea, 
handling salt-water-soaked ropes ; and, as the edges heal, 
and only the bottom of the cut remains open, it gradually 
deepens, until it gets to the bone, and they are very painful. 

We were "hove to " most of the time, with a tarpauhn in 
the weather main rigging, and the helm lashed a-lee. The 
watch would stay aft all the four hours; for it was impossi- 
ble to do anything except keep a lookout ; and even if we 
had seen anything that it was necessary to avoid, I doubt if 
we could have done it ; for by the time we could have got 
sail on her, and got her off the wind, if she was not pooped 
by the terrible seas that were running, whatever was the 
danger necessitating the change, we should probably have 



THE STORMY CAPE 1 89 

fouled it. All the sails were frozen to the spars, and, al- 
though we had strong life-lines along the weather stanchions 
(for the bulwarks were long since gone), still it was a life 
and death matter to attempt to do anything about the decks ; 
for almost every other one of the big Cape Horn seas went 
clean over her as though she were but a log. 

Once in a while the weather would moderate so that we 
could set the lower topsails for a day or two, and perhaps 
a reefed topsail ; and during the twenty-four hours we might 
be able to scratch ten or a dozen miles to the westward. 
Then it would come on to blow again as if all the old 
sailors and boatswains, whose souls are supposed to be 
drifting about off the Horn in the shape of albatrosses and 
cape hens, had gone to the bellows, and were doing their 
level best to blow the Httle brig clear out of water. Then 
it would be a case of all hands again to get in the " muslin." 
Many a four hours did we put in on a topsail yard, in the 
rain or snow as the case might be, fighting with the sail, 
which would belly away up over our heads, and be as 
round, and stiff, and hard as the bilge of an iron ship. We 
would pound it with our fists, and watch for her to drop 
into an extra deep trough of the sea, so that the sail might 
lose even a little of its wind. Then, as we felt it waver the 
least little bit softer, there would be a chorus of " Now ! 
Now ! Now ! Boys ! " and we would all try to make a 
wrinkle in the hard distended canvas so that we could get 
hold of it. 

Perhaps, after hours of this, she would drop into an 
extra deep trough, and, with a great shouting and hurrahing, 
we would manage to get a grip on the momentarily flapping 
sail, and pulUng altogether we would be highly gratified to 
find ourselves able to pull in perhaps a foot of canvas, 
which we would hastily crowd between our bodies and the 
yard, so as to be able to exert all our strength to hold it 



I go ON MANY SEAS 

there. Vain hope ! the instant she rose on the next sea, it 
would be whipped away from us in the twinkUng of an eye ; 
we couldn't hold it any more than a three-year-old boy 
could hold the recoil of a ten-inch gun. So we would be 
just where we started perhaps an hour or two before. All 
this time we were freezing ; our clothes would become so 
stiff in a few minutes, after leaving the deck and getting 
out of reach of the seas and drenching spray, that it would 
be almost impossible to handle ourselves; and several times 
we took turns going down into the top and, after pounding 
each other so as to get the use of our limbs, we returned to 
the yard and broke loose our less fortunate shipmates, who 
were frozen fast to it. 

At last, after having tried all the tricks known to Jack, 
we would finally get the sail furled after a fashion ; and on 
returning to the deck the first salute would be from a green 
sea which, though composed of icy water, would most 
effectually and instantly thaw out our sheet-iron clothes. 

Before the brine has run out of your eyes enough for you 
to realize that you are still on board, and not half a mile 
to leeward, you hear the mate sing out in the most cheery 
manner, " Now then, boys, jump up there and roll up the 
main topsail." 

" Why, certainly." It's only a few hours' work, just like 
the job already described, and when at last you have got 
the sails all in, and she is again hove to under the tarpaulin, 
comes the question, " Whose watch on deck is it? " and after 
finding out the time of night, — for these little diversions 
almost invariably occur in the night, — the lucky ones go 
below, to what? — only a temporary shelter from the fury 
of the wind and sea, for below everything is wet ; there are 
no dry clothes to put on, and no dry bed to get into ; 
everything is wet, cold, and miserable. There is not a 
match to be had that will burn ; consequently, as the scut- 



THE STORMY CAPE 191 

tie is kept on all the time to prevent flooding the place 
altogether, it is pitch-dark all the time. But what's the 
odds? There are no clothes to change, no grub to eat, 
nothing to do but tumble into your wet and soggy bunk all 
standing " like a trooper's horse," as the saying goes, and 
pulling your wet bedclothes over your other wet clothes, lie 
there, and steam, and shiver, and sleep, and dread to move 
because there is a slight sensation of, I had almost said, 
warmth, acquired by remaining in one position. 

When you think that you have been below about an hour, 
the scuttle fe shoved back with a bang and, with a noisy 
pounding on the roof of the companion, a voice roars out : 
" Sta-a-a-rboard watch, ahoy ! There's eight bells. Now 
then, my bullies, show a leg there. What's the matter with 
you, hey? Are ye all dead ? " 

After the disturber has been roundly cursed, and told to 
" Close that scuttle and git ter h out er there," he, sat- 
isfied that the watch are awake, obeys. And then the " jolly 
sailors " ( ?) slowly, painfiilly, and regretfully tumble out, 
while some sage repeats the old chestnut, " Who wouldn't 
sell a farm and go to sea?" Oh! there are many and 
charming varieties in life to be experienced in a little brig 
away to the southward and eastward of the Horn. 

One day, after about six weeks of this kind of thing, I 
was going aft to stay with the old second mate by the lashed 
helm ; for we relieved the wheel just the same as though we 
were steering her. The second mate had come on deck 
and relieved the mate and his man before I got aft, and as 
the mate's watch had all gone below, and my watch mates 
had not yet come on deck, as there was no occasion to 
hurry, there was nothing to do. The second mate and I 
were the only men on deck. 

As I was pulling myself along aft by the life-line, I saw 
the old second mate waving his arms and apparently shout- 



192 ON MANY SEAS 

ing to me ; for it was impossible to hear on account of the 
roaring of the wind. At the same time he grabbed one of 
the buhvark stanchions, twining both arms about it. I knew 
instinctively that a big sea was about to board us, but as I 
was facing aft I had not seen it. I got a good hold of the 
life-line and turned my head. That was years ago, and I 
have ploughed through thousands of miles of Old Ocean 
since then, and in some notoriously bad places too ; but I 
have never seen such a sight as for one single instant met 
my frightened gaze. 

The brig was in the trough of the sea, and the next on- 
coming billow had reached the breaking point. I hastily 
turned to windward and looked into the hollow of the big- 
gest wave I have ever seen. It stood up far above the fore- 
topsail yard, and the oncoming wall of sea was so curved, 
that, before it struck our bows at all, it broke half-way up 
the foretopmast, and the whole immense body of water, like 
a mountain, literally fell down upon the little brig. Why it 
didn't burst in her deck like so much wet paper and send 
her to the bottom, I do not know ; she must have been a 
stanch httle hooker. 

The second mate's head was bumped against the end 
of the stanchion with such force that, besides cutting his 
forehead severely, his left eye dropped out on his cheek, 
and after the sea had passed he went below, and the mate 
and captain, being like himself both west country men and 
accustomed to the emergencies of brutal fights and wrest- 
lings, soon shoved his eye back again. I was where I 
got the full force of the big sea, and I could no more 
hang onto that life-hne than if forty locomotives had me 
by the legs. 

I held on as long as I could, though I never expected 
to see daylight again ; for I supposed the brig was on her 
way to the bottom. Finally, with the terrific force of the 



THE STORMY CAPE 1 93 

water, the life-line was torn from my grasp and away I went, 
but, strange to say, not overboard. I was hurled along the 
deck aft, and must have passed the second mate, although 
he never saw me nor I him. I brought up with my left side 
against the edge of an oak grating that extended across the 
stern abaft the wheel and about three feet above the deck. 
I heard a crash as if some one had stove in an old packing- 
case with an axe, caused, as I afterwards found out, by the 
smashing of three of my own ribs. This, naturally, knocked 
the wind out of me, and I remained where I had fallen in 
the water on deck. 

The instinct of self-preservation caused me to seize hold 
of the relieving tackle on the tiller, and to this I hung I do 
not know how long, until the brig returned to the surface, 
and my watch mates and also the captain and mate came on 
deck to see what there was left of her. They found that 
there was nothing standing above the deck but the two 
masts, the windlass, forecastle scuttle, cabin, companion, 
and skyhght, and the wheel, with here and there a stanchion 
where the bulwarks had once been. Incidentally, I was dis- 
covered among the tiller ropes and relieving tackles, and 
picked up. It was found that I could not stand without 
help ; so it was decided to send me below, which was no 
small job, for I couldn't go myself, and no one else could 
very well help me, as it was about all they could do to get 
along themselves. 

However, after about half an hour's manoeuvring, they man- 
aged to get me forward, and we nearly all got washed over- 
board in doing it. I was lowered down into the forecastle, 
and perhaps I wasn't glad when at last they got me into my 
bunk ; for it seemed as if the broken ends of my ribs were 
punching out through the flesh, and they pricked Hke thou- 
sands of needles and took my breath away with every move- 
ment they made. The mate came forward and bandaged 
o 



194 ON MANY SEAS 

me tightly, so as to bring the ends of my ribs together and 
give them a chance to heal, and there I lay in my bunk for 
a week or ten days. And as of course it was impossible to 
keep myself motionless when the brig was tossing about, 
I suffered greatly. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Northward Bound. — Fine Weather, but Short of 
Water. — Viva Chile! — Arrest by Lariat. — A Good 
Riddance for the Brig. — New Names for a Dol- 
lar. — On the Tramp. 

An inspection of the brig, after the heavy sea had boarded 
her, showed that she had some water in her, and the pumps 
were started. It took a couple of hours' pumping to get it 
out of her, and ever afterward there was a steady increase 
in the amount of water she made. At last it got so that 
the men hardly left the pumps at all, and I being laid up, 
of course my watch was short-handed ; so, as soon as I 
could get out of my bunk, I went on watch again ; but I 
wasn't much use, for every move that I made it seemed 
as if the ends of my broken ribs were coming out through 
the skin. 

We now began to get short of fresh water ; but as we 
were in cold weather, it was not such a great trial as it 
would have been in the tropics. At last came a day when, 
after observing the sun's altitude at noon, and bringing up 
the longitude from the morning's observation, the mate 
came on deck and sung out the more "than welcome order, 
" Weather main brace ! " This told us that we were far 
enough west of the Horn to square away for the Pacific run 
of thousands of miles to Vancouver's Island. It was a great 
relief to get some sail on her and see her start to move once 
more through the water, and on her course. 

195 



196 ON MANY SEAS 

The day we squared away was a memorable one to me, 
for it was my twenty-first birthday. I had now been five 
years at sea, and so far from being captain of a big American 
ship, I was nothing but a common "lime-juice" sailor in a 
little bit of a brig. If I could have foreseen, when I started 
to go to sea, that after five years of such tough experience as 
I had been through, I would still be on the lowest rung of 
the ladder, with not the slightest prospect of ever getting 
any higher, I believe I would have stayed ashore. 

The day when for the first time a dry place appeared on 
the deck, it seemed as if all our troubles were over for ever, 
and when we once more got our clothing and bedding dried 
out, we forgot our Cape Horn sorrows ; for Jack is a care- 
free lad, and does not fool away his time mourning for what 
can't be helped. Every day's sail brought us into pleasanter 
weather, and the brig being off the wind and running easy 
and steady, she didn't make water enough to bother, and my 
ribs got rapidly better now that they were not racked from 
morning till night. 

We were now on a very short allowance of water, and as 
we were out of the cold weather, we missed the privilege of 
an occasional drink. The old man said he would go into 
Valparaiso and get water and do a little repairing. But we 
had not water enough to get to Valparaiso ; for though we 
quit cooking anything in fresh water, and only got two half- 
pint drinks per man per day, our water gave out entirely 
when thirty miles south of Concepcion Bay, on the coast of 
Chile. But fortunately we had a good breeze and fair wind, 
so we ran in there, let go the "mud-hook," furled the sails, 
and then, being warm from exercise and nearly choked with 
thirst, how glad we were to see the steward come along with 
a bucket two-thirds full of a thick, reddish liquid, which 
turned out to be the very last of our water. He had been 
down in the big iron tank with the bucket and a small cotton 



VIVA CHILE! 197 

swab, used for wiping paint-work, and swabbed up the very 
last drop of moisture there was in the tank, wringing his 
swab out in the bucket. It was a filthy mess, containing, 
besides a great amount of iron rust, all the settlings of the 
three thousand gallons of water that had originally been in 
the tank. But to us it was nectar. It was the biggest and 
wettest drink that we had had for weeks, and as for the taste — 
well ! on long voyages you don't taste the water any more 
than you are obliged to. I have seen water that you can 
get on end out of the scuttle butt, and pull the entire con- 
tents out on deck as though it were a lot of jelly. When 
you drink that kind of water, you are very careful to hold 
your nose. We anchored off a httle village called Tome, 
near the entrance to Concepcion Bay ; at the upper end of 
which is another small port, Talcahuano, a great place for 
whalers to refit, and is known to the New Bedford and Nan- 
tucket natives as "Turkey Warner." Of course we got 
water the first thing, and after having drunk our fill we forgot 
another of our trials. 

The old man found that in order to get his repairs done, 
he would have to give a bottomry bond, which is a terribly 
expensive thing to do. We asked him to give us liberty 
and money ; so he made his bottomry bond big enough to 
enable him to give us twenty dollars apiece, and we went 
ashore and had a high old time. We fell in with an old 
Yankee, who had been in the country for years and years, 
and kept a little grog-shop on the principal street, if you 
chose to call it that. I should rather call it a gully, for it 
was a watercourse in the rainy season and remained through- 
out the dry season in whatever condition the brook left it ; 
for as there were no wheeled vehicles at all in town, where 
would be the use in fixing up the street just for the people 
and a few jackasses? 

This old fellow was an intensely patriotic Chileno, and 



198 ON MANY SEAS 

the more anisado and aguardiente he drank, the more his 
patriotism blazed forth, and so did ours, for it seemed to be 
infectious ; and before we had been an hour ashore, we 
were waving our hats in the calle, and shouting "Viva 
Chile ! " with all the enthusiasm of brand-new citizens. The 
taste that we got of shore after being so long at sea, and 
especially after such a hard passage, together with the brill- 
iant accounts of this wonderful country, which the blamed 
old Yankee rum-seller stuffed us with, sickened us of the brig 
and her voyage, and we determined to remain and become 
Chilenos. So we didn't go aboard that night, and the next 
morning the mate came ashore after us, saying the old man 
wanted to get under way. 

We told him we were going no farther in her, and he got 
a couple of policemen to arrest us. There were three of us, 
two little Enghshmen and myself. We resolved to die hard ; 
so we stood back to back with drawn sheath-knives, defying 
the whole population of South America to put us aboard. 
A fellow came trotting down the side of the hill on a small 
pony and passed us unnoticed. But as he got well by he 
checked his pony and, turning in his saddle, cast his lariat 
over our little group just as we stood back to back, pinion- 
ing us just above the elbows, and all in a bunch. Then he 
started off at a gentle canter, and of course the instant the 
lariat became taut, we fell over, and he dragged us after him 
through the dirt as remorselessly as though we had been so 
many sheaves of straw. 

What a ride that was ! or shall I call it a slide ? Call it 
what you will, it was tough, almighty tough ! The vaquero 
had no more mercy for us than a hungry dog has for a bone. 
We learned afterwards that he had taken a contract to land 
us in the brig's boat for five dollars, and there was no stipu- 
lation that we were to be delivered alive, and so he dragged 
us through the dirt and stones ; we rolled and flapped over 



VIVA CHILE! 199 

one another ; almost every rag was torn off us, our hands 
and faces were scratched and scraped and bleeding. Those 
of us whose mouths were not entirely filled with sand and 
gravel, kept yelling alternate threats of vengeance on our 
captor, and pleas for mercy at his hands. But we wasted 
our breath ; for in the first place he could not understand 
us, and in the next he would not have cared if he had. And 
the natives of course jeered and hooted at the " Gringo 
marineros " who were being sacrificed to make a Chilian 
holiday. 

Fortunately, we hadn't far to go in this fashion. It was 
near the head of the wharf that we fell a prey to this, to us, 
new style of warfare. Arriving opposite the boat, he shouted 
something in Spanish to the crowd, and they gladly pitched 
us over the string piece into the boat, a good six feet below, 
without breaking a bone, but not without bruising what few 
places on us remained unbruised. Our captor wanted his 
lariat ; but the mate simplified matters with his knife, thereby 
severing his connection with the republic of Chile, and at the 
same time leaving us tied in the bottom of the boat. But 
bless you, we could have been tied with one turn of silk 
thread. They took us aboard, and we went aft and reviled 
that poor old captain shamefully. We swore we'd burn his 
brig, and himself in her, right where she lay at anchor. We 
alarmed the poor old man so that he begged the mate to 
take us ashore again ; but the mate said it was only the 
remains of the shore fever, and we would be all right after 
we had had a sleep. 

So we raved about the decks awhile, and one after another 
lay down and had a nap. But we got up more determined 
than ever to stay in Chile. What ! leave a country where 
splendid wine was so abundant and so cheap, where every 
woman you saw was a black-eyed beauty, where wages were 
high and board cheap, to go the long weary round that brig 



200 ON MANY SEAS 

was going, only to bring up in London or Liverpool at last ? 
No, never. The upshot of it all was that the old man told 
the mate to let us go, as he was satisfied we would be no 
more use to him. So the mate told us to keep quiet until 
the old man turned in and got to sleep, and then he would 
make no fuss if we left her. So, late in the evening, we 
landed on the beach near where an old EngUshman had a 
shanty with a native wife and a whole raft of young ones. 
He was an ex-sailor, who sympathized with us, having run 
away himself, years before ; and to use his own words, he 
hadn't been two miles from the spot he first landed on. He 
made a lazy kind of living by fishing in the bay. 

It would certainly have served us right if we had got six 
months in jail for the way we abused that good old man. 
Is it any wonder that captains and officers are sometimes 
accused of abusing sailors ? A little wholesome abuse would 
not have been thrown away on us three young scalawags at 
that time. 

As our money was not yet all spent, we, of course, could 
not think of leaving Tome where we had friends (?). We 
found that our friends were not so elated to see us as we 
had expected them to be ; for of course they knew we had 
not much money left by this time and would soon be 
"broke " altogether, when our acquaintance would be of no 
value to anybody, as we should have many needs and no 
money. Our rum-selling Yankee friend asked us what we 
intended to do. Oh ! we hadn't thought so far as that yet; 
we were enjoying ourselves all right. 

" But," said he, " I suppose you know you can't get a 
vessel from here, as no vessels come here except once in 
a while a small coaster, manned with natives." We had not 
given the matter any thought, and did not care very much, 
anyway. We were ashore, and that was the main thing. 
He then informed us that, according to the law of the 



VIVA CHILE! 201 

country, any sailor who could not show a discharge from 
his last vessel was presumed to be a runaway, and not only 
could not get another ship, but was liable to be arrested and 
jailed by any policeman, at any time. Of course it never 
occurred to us to ask him what they would gain by jailing 
us after our vessel had gone ; but he casually remarked that 
there were two or three discharges upstairs belonging to 
some native sailors, which he could let us have for a dollar 
apiece, and then we could go on to Lota or Coronel, and 
pass ourselves off as the persons whose names were on the 
papers, and get ships ; and this we did. 

My discharge was made out to Miguel Arteagas, and I 
was said to have been discharged from the bark Nuestra 
Senora. The others having also provided themselves with 
the necessary documents, we slung our bags on our backs, 
and, bidding Tom^ farewell, started overland for a seaport. 

We found the land wild, barren, and exceedingly unin- 
teresting. Once in a great while we would meet a native 
driving or tending sheep ; and they were about as ignorant 
as their own flocks. As far as we could find out, their 
staple article of food seemed to be roasted and pounded, or 
ground, corn. They take a small handful of this, put it in 
a horn, and stirring it up with a sufficient quantity of water 
to form a thin porridge, drink it down ; and while it does 
not make a very hearty meal, it has a palatable flavour, and 
certainly does appease, in a slight degree, the pangs of hun- 
ger. I have frequently seen two Chilenos talking together, 
and one would casually remark that he had been fasting 
since yesterday ; whereupon the other would fetch out, 
from some place under his " manta," a rag containing per- 
haps half a teacupful of parched corn, in the kernel, not 
pounded at all, just shelled off the ear and roasted. After 
much eloquent persuasion on the part of the one, and pro- 
fuse declinations and assurances that he is not a bit hungry. 



202 ON MANY SEAS 

and did not mean it, on the part of the other, he is at last 
overpersuaded to accept of his friend's bounty, and at least 
half of the chicken feed is poured into his willing palm. 
And the other, who has, perhaps, been hoarding this small 
store against a possible case of absolute starvation, and has 
gone hungry for days rather than break in on his reserve, 
will now, in order to put his friend at ease, pour the 
remainder out in his own hand, and eat it with an air of 
the utmost nonchalance, as if it were not a matter of the 
slightest importance. And to see them partake of this 
lunch is as good as a show. They will pick out a kernel 
at a time and, holding it up, comment on its quality, where 
it was raised, and so forth ; and then, bowing, smiling, and 
complimenting each other as though, instead of a couple of 
poor Chileno mule-drivers, they were grandees of Spain 
discussing some rare delicacy, they crunch it down imtil 
the very last kernel is gone ; and then, declaring, with all 
seriousness, that they have dined sumptuously, each will go 
his way rejoicing. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Stranded at Coronel. — I study Spanish. — Ship for 
Valparaiso. — In the "Dago" Navy. 

We were only one night on the road from Tome to 
Coronel, and that night we slept in a native " casa." We 
were feasted on half a pint of the corn-meal soup I have 
mentioned, and then the man brought us out a sheepskin 
apiece, and with much bowing and scraping indicated that 
we were to lie on the ground, for that was all the floor 
there was ; and as he and his wife and children, and a 
couple of wolfish-looking dogs, all slept in the same bed 
with us, we certainly could not complain that we had been 
discriminated against. At first we were somewhat suspi- 
cious of their intentions towards us ; as we could not under- 
stand the language, and they, being simple, ignorant people, 
would not only talk about us, but look right at us, and even 
point at us while talking. 

We feared all sorts of horrible things, and resolved to 
take turns on watch ; but we soon had reason to believe 
that they had gone to bed for all night, and we did the 
same. In the morning we were again treated to what 
seemed to us to be an awfully meagre allowance of the cold 
corn porridge, and leaving a couple of reales with our enter- 
tainer, who at first stoutly refused to accept anything, and 
finally sent us off amid a shower of blessings, we took the 
road again and that afternoon arrived in Coronel. Here 

203 



204 ON MANY SEAS 

we were accosted by a native boarding-house keeper, after 
showing our discharges to prove that we were not runaway 
sailors. 

While here I first began to learn Spanish, or, as it is 
called there, the " Castellano " language, and I well remem- 
ber my first lesson. There were quite a number of foreign- 
ers in the place, and, as nearly all sailors can speak English, 
it was easy to find out from them the meaning of words 
which caught my notice. 

We remained several weeks in Coronel, as there didn't 
seem to be any demand for sailors; but, as we were enjoy- 
ing ourselves, we did not care. 

At length one day the boarding master came to where 
we three were standing, and asked which of us would go to 
Valparaiso in an English bark. I volunteered, and went at 
once to the English consul's and signed articles. He looked 
at my discharge and asked me if I was a native. I told 
him no. " Well," said he, " how is it you have a Chileno 
name?" I told him that my name was Michael Artagas, 
but that the agent in Tome, being a native, had spelled it to 
suit himself. That satisfied him and he shipped me ; but 
one very undesirable effect remained : I was known on 
board the bark as Mike, which, seeing that I was a some- 
what patriotic and aggressive American, did not suit me 
at all. 

The bark had a cargo of Coronel coal, and this we dis- 
charged in Valparaiso, and by the time the coal was out I 
had worked up the month's advance that the boarding 
master got for me in Coronel, and I worked another day 
to pay for a pound of tobacco that I had drawn from the 
slop chest ; then I went aft and told the captain I was sick 
and would like to leave. He looked over my account, saw 
I didn't owe him anything, and agreed. Now I dare say, 
dear reader, that you wonder at my being so conscientious 



IN THE "DAGO" NAVY 205 

in this case, not to cheat the ship ; but there was a very 
good reason for it. We lay at anchor over on the northern 
side of the bay, out of everybody's way ; so there was no 
earthly chance of going ashore except in the bark's own 
boat, and as she was used for the sole purpose of putting 
the captain ashore after breakfast, dinner, and supper, and 
bringing him aboard before dinner, supper, and bedtime, 
I had to go with him if I went at all. So, packing my bag, 
I went ashore with him the next morning, and stepped 
ashore on the Mole in Valparaiso, as poor as thousands of 
other Gringos who have landed on this coast, and I sup- 
pose will keep on landing there for many a long year. 

I had heard of a boarding-house keeper in Valparaiso by 
the name of George Thomas, and to him I went. He took 
me in ; and, not being a deserter this time, I was not 
obliged to remain in hiding, but travelled about the city. 
One day while standing on the Mole watching the busy 
scene around me, — for Valparaiso, being a port of call for 
men-of-war of all nations, you can nearly always see repre- 
sentatives of two or three of the great maritime powers of 
the earth, — a young fellow in the uniform of the Chileno 
navy ranged alongside and asked me if I had seen the 
Aranco's boat. I told him I had not, and we gradually 
fell into conversation, and he advised me, if I intended to 
stay on the coast and wanted to learn the language, to ship 
in the navy. 

I rather liked the idea and told George Thomas of my 
wishes in the matter, and he took me down the next day to 
the place where they shipped for the navy, and I signed 
articles as an able seaman at twenty dollars per month for 
five years. The reason I signed for five years was because 
they paid more wages for the long term, and I would have 
signed for twenty years, ay, for fifty, if they would have 
given me a dollar a month more for doing so. I was sent 



206 ON MANY SEAS 

at once on board the flagship Esmeralda, an old wooden 
corvette, which for all I know may be hanging on to the 
ring of her anchor in Valparaiso yet ; for during all my time 
in the navy she never had it off the bottom, and I don't 
know how long she had been there before I saw her. 
Arrived on board, I found the crew a queer medley. There 
was a large sprinkling of natives, who knew as much about 
seamanship as a goat knows about cutlass drill. Neverthe- 
less, they swaggered about, and when half or wholly. full of 
aguardiente remarked in dramatic tones and with a blow on 

the breast, "Soy marinero carrajo ! " (I am a sailor, d 

you !) ; and turned up their noses in supreme contempt 
at the Gringos, who were the only real sailors aboard. 

We had representatives of nearly all the maritime nations 
of Europe in our crew ; for it was a lazy life with plenty 
of good fresh grub, and, for several days after pay-day, 
plenty to drink. The officers were natives, and shared with 
the native element of the crew the national contempt for 
Gringos. 

I shipped by the name of James Jackson, that being the 
first that came to my mind when signing articles. And as I 
was informed by " Dublin," the chief gunner's mate, that 
James was Santiago in Spanish, I went during my entire 
stay by the name of " Santiago Yackson." 

We had very little active duty except to keep the ship 
clean and pull the boat to and from shore, and wait for pay- 
day, which arrived somewhere about once a month, but with 
no regularity whatever. Sometimes, when it was delayed 
longer than usual, a committee of the " ladies " from Main 
Top Hill would surround the naval officers ashore and make 
a " demonstration." Whether their interest in our behalf — 
and their own — had any effect or not, I cannot say ; but 
certain it is that it would be invariably followed at no great 
distance of time by a visit from the paymaster. Probably he 



IN THE "DAGO" NAVY 20/ 

was about ready to come, anyway ; but be that as it may, they 
certainly took great credit to themselves for hurrying him 
up, and they knew too when we were to be paid before we 
did. The first notice we would get of the proximity of 
that very important event would be the approach of a whole 
fleet of shore boats, "bumboats," loaded with fruit, tobacco 
pipes, and all sorts of contrivances for smuggling anisado 
and aguardiente ; visitors' boats containing Jack's wives and 
sweethearts, who remember him on this day of all days, even 
though they had been flirting with the soldiers and vigilantes 
during the entire month past. There was great rivalry to 
see who should be first alongside, and send up for the dear 
boy to come down in the boat to his own Dolores or 
Juanita, and if her unlucky star was in the ascendant to 
such an extent that she found him already appropriated by 
some other charmer, why, what harm ? The world is wide, 
and there's room for all. It was only necessary to nod and 
smile to the first blue-capped head that appeared above the 
rail ; for with all Jack's faults, he never shghts the ladies. 
And oh my ! what a drunken crew that would be before 
night. 

As they began to get noisy, the natives would stride about 
the decks, shouting " Viva Chile mi^rcoles," scowling 
savagely at the Gringos, who would be apt to reply in terms 
more expressive than polite ; but though the natives' will 
was good enough, they had too wholesome a regard for the 
boxing abilities of the average English and American sailor 
to let their patriotism very often carry them to the extent 
of actual blows. 

It was during these times that the boats' crews made 
money, for those who did not belong to a boat had to deal 
with those who did ; and as a bottle of aguardiente only cost 
a"chaouch" — twenty cents — on shore, and as no man 
would undertake to bring one off unless a dollar was put in 



208 ON MANY SEAS 

his hand before he started, it was evident, when you take 
into consideration the mighty and overvvhehning thirst of a 
whole ship's company, with their pockets full of dollars, that 
the successful smuggler was in a fair way to become a bloated 
aristocrat. 

But there were obstacles in his way. In the first place, 
the officers were " onto " them, and on pay-day, and for 
several days afterwards, no boat would be sent ashore with- 
out, if not an officer, at least a marine in it, to prevent the 
blue-jackets from leaving the boat. When an officer was 
sent, it was nearly a hopeless case ; but when a marine was 
sent, he would need to be a Puritan if the Jacks could not 
corrupt him, for though the sailors and marines hate each 
other with a great and noble hatred and contempt, still, is 
not even a marine half human? and has not his Creator 
endowed him with the same overpowering, pay-day thirst as 
other folks? Verily the records prove that it is so. 

It is a well-known fact, or was to us at that time, that a 
gentle hint to the marine that if he would be conveniently 
preoccupied for a moment, he should have the first pull at 
the " tripa," was sufficient to overcome his allegiance. Of 
course a solemn promise would be given to get but one 
tripa, and all hands were to have just one sip, and not make 
fools of themselves. Oh yes, certainly ! 

As the result of a dicker of this kind, the captain's gig 
would have drifted out into the Pacific one pay-day, if the 
quartermaster on watch had not spied her and notified the 
" first luff," who sent another boat after her. 

Her crew had got so interested in a stump speech which 
the coxwain was making them on the relative bravery of the 
Chilians and Peruvians, as demonstrated in the recent war 
with Spain. In their excitement the bowman had dropped 
his boathook overboard, and as that was their only connec- 
tion with the Mole, they drifted out into the bay. 



IN THE "DAGO" NAVY 209 

The marine, whose duty it was to keep the sailors in 
order, went peacefully to sleep in the stern sheets, and 
when the first cutter ranged alongside and took them in 
tow, it didn't disturb the meeting in the least. I don't 
think they even knew anything about it, for it is a fact that 
as they sheered up to the gangway, they gave a drunken 
cheer in response to some good point made by the orator of 
the day. 

There were several English and French men-of-war in the 
bay, and of course they had seen the show, and this no doubt 
made the lieutenant mad. He called the crew on deck, and 
it was surprising to see them straighten up when they heard 
the voice and caught the eye of that nautical despot, the 
"first luff." 

They came up the gang ladder and, by his order, " toed 
pitch" as straight as so many ramrods. The only sign of 
the disease about them just at that moment was a sort of 
unsteady leer in their eyes ; but they didn't even waver on 
the line. They threw their shoulders back and stuck out 
their chests so that he could see how sober they were. But 
alas ! it was all in vain. He called them a lot of drunken 
scoundrels and sent them below in irons for thirty days. 

It was comical to see the instantaneous change in their 
manner when they realized that their attempt to appear 
sober was a failure. They seemed to collapse all at once, 
and reeled off down to the " brig," drunk and happy. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

A Mystery of the "Trip as." — Caught Smuggling. — 
Pay-day Drunkenness. — Flogging. — Prize-Money and 
Punishment. 

Some of the devices for smuggling liquor aboard were 
quite amusing. It was always put up in " tripas " for the 
men-of-war. A tripa (pronounced " treepa," and by the 
Gringos "tripper") is a long skin like a sausage. There 
are one and two bottle tripas, and the possessor of a two- 
bottle tripa is a man to be friendly with. The method of 
drinking out of it is to put the open end in the mouth, sup- 
porting the bottom by the right hand, then, closing the finger 
and thumb of the other hand tightly about the tripa at the 
distance below the lips of one drink, — an action which 
always calls for vociferous expostulation on the part of the 
other interested members who are waiting for their turn, — 
raise the closed thumb and finger slowly towards the mouth, 
at the same time absorbing the expelled Hquor into the 
system. It is a rather difficult knack to acquire, but I never 
knew a Gringo fail to become an expert at it. On account 
of their flexibiUty, the tripas can be brought aboard in the 
slack bight of the blue shirt above the waistband, coiled 
in the cap, or suspended, either in the leg of the pants or in 
the sleeve of the shirt. It is the duty of either the marine 
at the gangway or the quartermaster of the watch to see 
that no liquor is brought on board ; but they are apt to be 

2IO 



CAUGHT SMUGGLING 211 

interested parties and, unless they have a grudge against a 
certain man, they seldom discover any in transit. 

Once when I was coxwain of the Cavadonga's dingy, 
I had been doing a rushing business in the retail hquor line, 
and decided to make a grand coup. So in the morning, 
while cleaning my boat in the davits, I took out the plug, 
shoved a piece of spun yarn down through the plug-hole, 
and drove the plug in again ; then, reaching over the side 
with the boat-hook, I caught the yarn that was hanging down 
from the plug-hole, and hauling it up made it fast to my 
rowlock. The dingy was the smallest boat in the ship, 
puUing only two oars. A native boy and myself constituted 
her crew ; he pulled the bow oar, and I the stroke. 

Our first duty was to go ashore in the morning with " Jack 
in the Dust " and get the day's provisions. After that the 
boat was cleaned up again at the swinging boom, and used 
as the heutenant's gig. On this particular morning while 
" Jack in the Dust " was up at the market purchasing his 
supplies, I went and bought two dollars' worth of tripas — 
ten. These I could readily dispose of on board for ten dol- 
lars. I cast off the end of the yarn from the rowlock, and 
making my bunch of tripas fast to it, threw them overboard, 
then pulling out the plug quickly, yanked the bunch of tripas 
up close to the hole under the boat's bottom and jammed 
in the plug again. I calculated that on arriving alongside I 
would myself haul the boat out to the boom, and watch 
my opportunity to get my merchandise aboard. But when 
we arrived alongside, the "first luff" stood looking over the 
side, and he must have " smelt a rat " when he saw me send 
the boy up the gangway with the rudder yoke and boat 
cloth ; for, as coxwain, that was my duty. So when I had 
hauled her half-way out to the swinging boom, he hailed 
me and told me to come alongside and hook her on ; at the 
same time he told the quartermaster to notify the boatswain 



212 ON MANY SEAS 

to hoist the dingy, and now I was in a pucker. I slowly 
hauled her alongside, watching for a chance to stoop down 
and pull the plug for an instant and let the tripas go adrift ; 
but the lieutenant never took his eyes off me for an instant. 

Arrived alongside, I hooked her on, and tried my level 
best to kick the plug out without attracting attention ; but 
it was no use. I had put it in too solidly, for fear it might 
get kicked out and lose my valuable merchandise ; and now 
the men were walking away with the davit tackle falls, and 
it took me all my time to bear off and keep her clear of the 
side. The lieutenant never moved from the gangway ; and 
I had a vivid idea of how those tripas must look to him, as 
they rose dripping and swinging from side to side. I did 
not care to look round ; but I managed to steal a glance out 
of the tail of my eye, but his face showed no sign. 

As the boat rose to the davits, high above the rail, the 
men caught sight of them, and a loud shout of laughter told 
me the light in which they viewed my predicament ; and 
still the " first luff" never left his place. I was in no hurry 
to come on board, but busied myself arranging the oars and 
boat-hook, wishing to the Lord he would turn his back, if 
only for an instant, so I could pull the plug and drop my 
tormentors overboard, although, to be sure, it was too late 
now to be of any use. 

Finally he called me, told me to come in and come aft ; 
and when I had done so, he pointed to the bunch of tripas 
and asked me what that was. I looked round with the most 
innocent air that I could assume, and told him they looked 
like tripas. When I looked up again he was grinning in 
spite of himself, and told the boatswain to pipe all hands 
to splice the main brace (grog-ho). And I had to cut 
down my liquor store, and see the fellows I had intended 
to sell out to at such Shylock rates drink my rum free-gratis 
and for nothing. The lieutenant never said a word ; but I 



CAUGHT SMUGGLING 21 3 

was mighty careful after that how I smuggled tripas aboard 
of the Cavadonga. 

Pay-day night was always circus night aboard the Esme- 
ralda. She had eight broadside guns on each side of the 
upper deck, and two big capstans, one forward and one aft. 
Before dark there would generally be a man lashed astride of 
each gun, and two embracing each capstan, with their feet 
and hands fastened together ; that is, the feet and hands of 
one stretched round the capstan until meeting those of his 
companero, to which they were lashed fast. 

They would all be gloriously drunk, shouting, singing, or 
cursing the captain and his officers. There would be as 
many different kinds of drunks as there were patients, and 
the rest of the crew would see that the martyrs to the good 
cause didn't suffer from want of that which had got them 
mto trouble ; for it was an unwritten law — and, like all 
unwritten laws, most rigidly observed — that whoever had 
a tripa should first offer it to whatever prisoners there were 
in the " brig." And on occasions like this, when the entire 
spar deck was transformed into a " brig," and every man 
was the possessor of one or more tripas, it may readily be 
supposed that the prisoners didn't go dry. 

I remember one pay-day that, rather earlier than usual, 
the guns and capstans had each been occupied, and still 
there was a surplus of noisy marineros about the deck, when 
a happy thought struck the first lieutenant. There were 
eight round holes in the deck for coaling ship — four on 
each side. Directly under these holes in the spar deck 
were others in the berth deck leading into the bunkers ; 
and to connect the two together we had sheet-iron pipes 
about two feet in diameter and nine or ten feet high. 
These, when not in use, were stored away down forrard. 
The "first luff" bethought himself of these coal-shutes, and 
directly he had them up and ranged four on a side, for- 



214 ON MANY SEAS 

ward ; and each, standing on end, containing a drunken 
man-of-war's-man. Well, at first they kicked and yelled 
and tried to upset their prisons, but finding that no use, 
they gradually subsided. At last a happy thought struck 
me. 

My fi-iend " Dubhn," the chief gunner's mate, was one of 
the unfortunate tenants of the new style of round-house, 
and I kicked on the outside of his jail until I attracted his 
attention. I asked him if he was dry. Undoubtedly he 
was ; so I told him to look out and I would drop a deck 
broom down his chimney, and he could stand it on end, 
and by mounting it would be able to see out over the top. 
He agreed, and after one or two misses I managed to 
pitchpole a broom into his apartment ; that is, dart it up in 
the air and let it curve over so as to descend point first. 
Dublin soon scrambled up on his broom, and the first 
thing we knew, his head appeared over the top calling for 
something to drink, " for God's sake," and he looked as if 
he needed it ; for Dublin, the old man-of-war's-man, — Dub- 
lin, the immaculate, who always took such a justifiable pride 
in his personal appearance, — had become transformed into 
what might easily have been mistaken for the cook of a 
geordie collier. 

His demand was instantly more than complied with, and 
tripas enough were passed up to him on broomsticks to 
have caused a mutiny in any other navy. No sooner did 
the natives get on to the racket, than they had all the 
inmates of the " straight jackets " supplied with brooms,. and 
all appeared, one after the other, at the tops of their prisons, 
dirty, sweaty, and dry, but hopeful. And their hopes were 
not unfounded ; for shortly they were, each supplied with a 
tripa, and were alternately cheering the Republic and jeer- 
ing at the chief boatswain's mate, whom they supposed to 
be to blame for their imprisonment. It was extremely 



CAUGHT SMUGGLING 21 5 

comical to watch them as they appeared, only their heads 
and shoulders showing, like so many Jacks-in-a-box. As 
the aguardiente began to work, some would wildly declaim 
against the barbarity of their treatment ; others, with no 
hard feelings against anybody, would perhaps break out in 
song ; while yet others would be engaged in a very quiet, 
important, and serious conversation with a particular 
" chum " ; when without an instant's warning the broom 
would go from under some unfortunate, and he would dis- 
appear with a celerity and completeness that was most 
astonishing. If you happened to be standing near the 
particular shute whose occupant had so suddenly gone 
"downstairs," you would hear, after the first rattle and 
bang attendant on his sudden return home, a smothered 
Ca-r-r-r-r-ajo, and he would either proceed to climb up 
again or drop into a peaceful slumber, according to the 
stage at which he had arrived in his cups. 

Drunkenness became so flagrant at last that the admiral 
resolved to break it up, and as it was apparently impossible 
to prevent the men bringing liquor aboard, he determined 
to invest the state of drunkenness with a dread which 
should deter the worst of them from indulging to excess. 
To this end he invented a punishment, which we called 
"dipping." The Esmeralda's main-yard was about sixty 
feet above the level of the bay ; a gant-line would be run 
through a quarter block and out through a yard-arm block, 
the end brought in on deck. A bowline is made in the end, 
and the culprit stands in this bowline. The line then 
passes up his back, his hands are tied down his sides, and 
the gant-line is stopped along up, so that when suspended 
he will stand in a perfectly upright position. A belaying- 
pin is seized fast to the gant-line about a foot above the 
man's head to act as a toggle and prevent his head coming 
in contact with the yard-arm block. A downhaul is put on 



2l6 ON MANY SEAS 

to the bowline under his feet, the gant-Hne taken to a lead 
block in the deck, and all hands tail on. At the sound of 
the boatswain's pipe all hands walk away. A few tend the 
downhaul and slack him out over the rail, and away he goes 
with a graceful sweep, smoothly and rapidly out to the very 
extremity of the long main-yard, fathoms high above the 
water of the bay, and fathoms out from the ship's black 
side. If he never was alone before, he is now. The chief 
boatswain's mate keeps a vigilant eye on the belaying-pin 
above the man's head. With his pipe to his lips, he keeps 
the men stamping along the deck. Suddenly the shrill note, 
" Belay," rings out. We don't belay, but we stop ; and in 
another moment "Let go" comes from the pipes, and amid 
the shrill and continuous whistling of all the boatswain's 
mates together, down he comes ; down, down, like a deep- 
sea lead, as straight as a plummet, and as quick as a flash. 
Not the slightest check is given to his descent, and with 
almost no splash he bores a hole in the water as he strikes 
feet first, perfectly erect, and coming at lightning speed. 
He is allowed to continue on his way towards the earth's 
centre until the rope shows slack, when " Walk away " comes 
from the pipes, and, grabbing the rope again, we walk off, 
and our shipmate rises dripping from the sea, and up he 
goes again to the yard-arm for a repetition of the dose. 
Twice and three times they are " dipped," according to the 
gravity of the case, and on arriving at the yard-arm after 
the last dip I can imagine how welcome must be the sound 
of " Lower away," instead of " Let go," which assures the 
poor fellow that his punishment is over for this time ; and 
lowering gradually, the others haul in on the downhaul and 
he is brought in on deck more dead than alive. He is 
taken below, stripped and put in his hammock, where he is 
supposed to stay till noon ; but does he ? I never knew a 
case where he did ; for it being known beforehand that there 



CAUGHT SMUGGLING 2\J 

is to be a " dip," every man will do his utmost to get a 
tripa to cheer the victim or victims on their return from the 
" briny ; " the natural consequence being that before the 
man has been out of the bowhne half an hour, he climbs 
out of his hammock, goes aft, and defies the "first luff" 
to dip him, which the "first luff" accordingly does the 
very next morning. So that, taking the new cases and those 
that required re-treatment, the process of dipping got to be 
such an important part of the daily routine, and produced 
so little effect, that it was presently abandoned altogether. 

I remained in the Esmeralda about six months, and was 
then transferred to the Ancud. She was a little despatch- 
boat used principally to carry recruits and provisions 
down the coast. While aboard of her. I saw a good deal 
of flogging, and came within an ace of getting flogged 
myself. There was a hulk in Valparaiso called the TJial- 
aba, used as a store-ship. A few years before, when the 
Spanish fleet was on the coast, the Thalaba came around 
the Horn loaded with ammunition, stores, and a year's pay 
for the Spanish fleet. Her orders were to report to the 
Spanish admiral in Valparaiso ; but between the time that 
she got her orders and the time she arrived in Valparaiso, 
the Chilenos had driven the Spanish fleet out of Valparaiso 
and occupied it themselves. Consequently when the Thal- 
aba swung round Reef Topsail Point with the Spanish 
flag flying at the peak, imagine the surprise of her captain to 
be greeted by the sight of the single star of Chile floating 
over the forts and men-of-war in the harbour. Of course 
she was helpless, and the little Cavadonga, which had 
herself been recently captured from the Spanish, steamed 
up and put a prize crew on her and brought her in. Of 
course she was a valuable prize, and the Cavadonga' s crew 
were entitled to a share of her ; but being nearly all "beach- 
combers " and " bums " of all nations, they gradually de- 



3l8 ON MANY SEAS 

serted and became scattered all over the coast. Some 
years afterwards the board having the matter in hand de- 
clared a dividend, and it became known that all men who 
could prove that they had been members of the Cava- 
do?iga's crew on that memorable occasion, were entitled to 
prize-money to the value of from $300 up. The news 
spread like wild-fire, and ex-Cavadongas began to arrive 
from all over the coast. Of course there were lots of fakes, 
and it was said that enough claimants arrived in Valparaiso 
at that time to man the whole navy. 

Those who had been honourably discharged, of course 
had merely to identify themselves and get their money ; 
but I fancy they were in an overwhelming minority, for it's 
seldom a Valparaiso beach-comber completes his time any- 
where ; so they were treated first as deserters and flogged 
for that, then their rights as veterans were acknowledged, 
their prize-money paid, and they were given liberty, when 
of course they never returned. 

Many an amusing tale have I heard, of how some poor 
fellow's courage would be screwed up for him to enable 
him to go aboard the old Esmeralda and give himself 
up, take his three dozen lashes of the cat, and get his 
prize-money. Of course the prospective rico (rich man) 
would have lots of friends who desired to show their good- 
will by helping him to spend his good Chileno pesos. 

But even a beach-comber, if sober, is apt to have an 
overweening respect for his hide, and he would glance 
longingly out to the fleet and say to himself, "There are 
^300 there for me ; also three dozen of the cat," and a 
struggle would take place in his mind that would almost 
turn his hair gray. How, and when, would he ever have 
a chance at so much money again, while the flogging would 
only last a few minutes. 

About this time, when half converted, he would run across 



CAUGHT SMUGGLING 219 

some fellow who had already been through the mill, and 
who swore he wouldn't go over it again for three times 
three hundred, no, nor three thousand. So, becoming dis- 
heartened, his interested friends would have to take him 
in hand again and fill him up once more with " Dutch 
courage," and while in that condition send him aboard 
drunk and boastful, swearing chat all the " Dago " boat- 
swains and their mates on earth can't deter him from 
getting his rights ; but unfortunately for him, he is put in 
the " brig " to sober off, before his case comes up for con- 
sideration at all ; so that by the time he is " married to the 
gunner's daughter," he is in condition to enjoy every stroke 
of the cat, and many of them would have given up the 
money gladly to be allowed to go ashore again. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

The Boatswains Mate. — Appointed " Bodeguero." — 
Wine below Hatches. — Punished if not convicted. 

Our chief boatswain's mate, Juan Angelino, was a big, 
coarse, rum-soaked, red-headed Austrian, who claimed to 
be fiercely patriotic, and professed to take great delight in 
administering the cat to the ' d — d deserters.' Certain it 
is that he gave it to them with a vim. And the most natural 
result was, that for several years afterwards, in fact, as long 
as I remained in the navy, Juan could seldom go ashore in 
Valparaiso without coming aboard again thoroughly well 
licked. For even if none of the unfortunates who had been 
favoured by his official attentions happened to be in port, 
he was a marked man, and every sailor on the coast con- 
sidered it to be his duty to have a go at Red Angehno 
whenever the opportunity offered. 

He it was who came near putting the marks of the cat's 
claws on my back. I had been transferred to the Ancud 
for some time, and Angelino had also been sent to her to 
act as boatswain ; for she was too small to rate either a cap- 
tain or a boatswain. Our employment was carrying recruits 
and stores down the coast to Cable Lota, and Chiloe, stop- 
ping incidentally at the other small ports as we went back 
and forth. 

Quite an important item of our supplies was the wine. 
It came in big hogsheads, and was always stowed down in 
the forehold in charge of the bodeguero, i. e. captain of the 



BUCKED AND GAGGED 221 

hold, and there were always many complaints from the 
military ofificers that the casks were never delivered/////. So 
the " first luff," who had the honour and good name of his 
ship at heart, kept changing the bodeguero, but apparently 
without effect. 

At this time I was coxwain of his boat, the Dinky. I had 
become proficient in the language, so that I could speak it, 
if not grammatically, at least with perfect fluency, and I had 
an accent Hke a veritable " Cholo." 

The "first luff" was quite a hilarious chap when ashore, 
and I had been in some tolerably tough rackets with him. 

He would take me along in the guise of an attendant, but 
I knew that in reality it was as an escort ; for in some of his 
carryings on he outraged the feehngs of the natives almost 
beyond endurance, and at such times it was just as well to 
have a sturdy blue-jacket in his wake. And besides, I fre- 
quently had to convoy him back to the boat, and assist him 
up the ladder when we got alongside. But I was always 
discreet, and never overstepped the bounds of deference to 
my superior officer, or allowed myself to tattle of our adven- 
tures when on board. So, when he told me he was going 
to appoint me bodeguero, and would flog me if I didn't 
deliver all the cargo entrusted to me intact on arrival in the 
South, I was elated at the prospect of promotion, and had 
no fear whatever of consequences ; for I didn't beheve that 
" mi teniente " would flog me who had been with him and 
stayed by him through thick and thin. 

So I was appointed, and when the cargo was in, contain- 
ing, among other things, three huge casks of wine stowed 
directly under the hatch, he told me to lock the hatch and 
bring him the key. I was well pleased at that \ for I thought 
if he had the key he certainly would not have the face to 
hold me responsible for any losses which might occur while 
in transit ; but I didn't know him as well as I thought I did. 



222 ON MANY SEAS 

I had several particular friends in the crew. There was 
old French Louis, the quartermaster, whose conversation 
was always a jumble of French, English, and Spanish, but 
who was as jovial an old soul as ever lived and liked good 
wine. Then there was red-headed Murphy, the fireman, 
and my immediate predecessor in office, an Englishman, 
who had been disrated on account of the mysterious shrink- 
age of the contents of the wine casks entrusted to his care ; 
of course, I couldn't afford to offend him, for he knew all 
the tricks of the trade. Angehno el Contramaestro I didn't 
particularly admire — nobody did ; but it was policy to 
keep on the right side of him, and he was as thirsty a mor- 
tal as I ever saw. When he couldn't get anything else to 
drink, he would beg a little spirits of wine from the car- 
penter's stores and drink that, very slightly diluted with 
water. 

A few hours after we left Valparaiso, Bill Jones, my prede- 
cessor, remarked that he supposed this would be a dry trip, 
with a meaning look at me. 

"Why?" said I. 

" Oh ! " said he ; " we've got a new bodeguero now, and 
the 'luff' has the key." 

"Why, Bill," said I, "you don't suppose that a Dago 
Ueutenant is a match for a Yankee sailor, do you ? Not at 
all, my boy ; wait till to-night and I'll show you a trick he 
never heard of." So about one o'clock that night there 
was a gathering of the clans in the fore hold. Louis was 
there. Bill Jones, Murphy, and myself, four Gringos, — 
no natives need apply, — and each man had a leather 
cartridge bucket that would hold about two gallons of 
anything he happened to have to put in it. I also had a 
marlinespike. 

When Bill saw that, he said : " For God's sake, man, 
don't break the lock. You'll get us all 'ung." 



BUCKED AND GAGGED 223 

I told him not to worry ; I was not such a bungler as that. 

The hatch was in four sections, secured by two flat iron 
hatch-bars about an inch and a half wide by a quarter of 
an inch thick. One end was drawn out to a round point, 
and this passed through a hole in a short vertical iron 
strap, the lower end of which was bolted to the side of 
the hatch-combing. The other end of the bar was bent 
down like a hasp, and had a slotted hole in it which fitted 
over a staple on the other side of the combing, into which 
the padlock went. The bar being about twelve feet long 
and comparatively thin, I struck the point of the marline- 
spike under the centre of it, raising it up enough to get 
my fingers under it, when, giving it a quick jerk, up the 
straight, pointed end sprung out from the hole in the strap, 
and the hatch was open. To replace the bar, it was only 
necessary for two of us to hold up the middle of the bar, 
while the others bent the end down until the point was 
opposite the hole, when, by letting go, it went back into 
place again. After getting one of the hatches off, we sent 
Louis and Murphy down with the cartridge buckets and 
gimlets, and then put the hatch on again, laying the bar 
in its place. Jones sat down on the disconnected end, 
mending a pair of pants, while I went up and loafed 
around the berth-deck, watching for possible stragglers. 
By and bye I heard Bill cursing his broken needle, which 
was the sigrial agreed upon, and I came down, after seeing 
the coast all clear. We hfted off the hatch, received the four 
buckets of wine from our fellow-conspirators, and, pulling 
them up, replaced everything as it was. Then, stowing 
away three of the buckets for future emergencies, we ad- 
journed with the fourth to the fiddler, where we caroused 
to our hearts' content, passing meanwhile uncomplimentary 
remarks concerning the "first luff's" acuteness in dealing 
with Gringos. 



224 O^ MANY SEAS 

Bill and Murphy wanted to broach another bucket, but 
I wouldn't have it ; for I was bound not to overdo it. I 
filled a quart tin pot and carried it down to the boatswain's 
quarters. Angelino was sound asleep. I shook him gently, 
and he finally rolled over and muttered, " Quien es? " (Who 
is it ?) 

" Yo, Santiago el Bodeguero," said I. 

"Que quieres hombre?" (What do you want?) I said 
no more, but sticking my finger in the wine, drew it across 
his nose. The effect was instantaneous. 

He was wide awake at once, and, starting up in his bunk, 
asked: " Adonde esta, da me lo pues?" and seizing the 
quart, he drained it at a gulp, remarking, " Carrajo ! esta 
bueno, tienes mas?" Telling him I had no more, I silently 
withdrew. 

We had agreed between ourselves that we would take no 
one into our confidence, and that the hatch should not be 
taken off except when all four were present and agreed. 
And one thing I insisted on was that all the rest should 
obey me strictly in everything. If all hands had stuck to 
this agreement, all might have been well. But alas ! sailors 
are unreliable in some things, and this was one of them. 
We were getting along finely, having wine enough to keep 
our spirits up, and no one was any the wiser, when one 
night Angelino shook me by the shoulder, as I lay asleep 
in my hammock, and asked me if I knew where Louis was. 

I told him no. " Well," said he, " it's his watch on deck, 
and he is nowhere about. You had better hunt him up," 
and, giving me a knowing look, he walked off. 

My heart misgave me at once, for I knew old Louis's 
weakness. I jumped out of my hammock and down into 
the fore hold, and, sure enough, the hatch was off, and from 
the depths below came a noise like the rumbling of an 
approaching earthquake. I hurriedly lit a battle lanthorn. 



BUCKED AND GAGGED 225 

and looked down. Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! there lay the old 
hunks flat on his back on a cask : his arms extended, his 
right hand grasping an empty tin pot, his old gray beard, 
the front of his shirt and pants, drenched with wine, his 
mouth wide open and emitting the most awful and varied 
snores I have ever heard. He had come down off his 
watch, got the hatch off" alone, and, tapping the cask, 
deliberately drunk himself into insensibility. Of course the 
spile-hole was open in the cask, and it had drained itself 
into the hold ; and the fumes of wine that came up that 
hatch were eno^igh to intoxicate the toughest Valparaiso 
beach-comber that ever slept outdoors. 

I went and got Bill Jones up, and we held a council of 
war. It would never do to pull him out of there the way 
he was, for his clothes, being saturated with wine, would 
smear the deck and everything he came in contact with ; so 
we got buckets, and quietly drew water through the bow- 
port, and brought it down and doused him with it where he 
lay. But he was so happy that he didn't even alter a note 
of the tune he was playing on his nasal bogoo. Then we 
got down in the hold, and stripped his clothes off, and 
wrung them out, and hauled his old carcass up, dressed him 
in some of our clothes, and put him in his hammock. Con- 
cluding we could never get the smell or the stain of the 
wine out of his clothes, we threw them overboard, put the 
hatch back on again, and I went on deck and stood the 
rest of his watch. The officer of the deck came along and 
asked where the quartermaster was, and I told him he had 
been taken suddenly sick, and I was standing the rest of 
his watch for him. 

I was in a quake for fear he should order me to send 
Louis to him ; but he was a young fellow who had a very in- 
definite idea of his duty, so I escaped that ordeal. I now 
had an opportunity to ponder over the fix in which I found 

Q 



226 ON MANY SEAS 

myself. I was the man whom the Heutenant had appointed 
to see the cargo safely delivered, and how had I fulfilled 
the trust reposed in me? Heretofore there had been 
complaints that the wine had been tampered with, the 
measure had been short ; but it remained for me, the " re- 
form " bodeguero, to come into port short of an entire cask, 
for the old jay had tapped it close to the bottom chime. 

The lieutenant's threat that he would flog me if the wine 
was not all there at the end of the route flashed vividly 
across my mind, and it didn't seem half so idle a threat as 
it had that sunshiny afternoon in Valparaiso Bay. I knew 
I couldn't trust Angelino ; for though I had treated him 
generously to a good share of the spoils, yet Angelino 
dearly loved the cat. And when he had thai instrument of 
discipUne in his hand, I believe if it had been his own 
father that lay stretched over the breach of the gun before 
him, his professional pride would have overcome his filial 
respect to such an extent that he could have gloried in see- 
ing the alternate white and red streaks rise on the paternal 
back in response to "Pussy's" gentle caresses. 

The next day we arrived in Lebu, and the lighter coming 
alongside, the hatches were taken off, the Heutenant him- 
self opening the locks ; and two men jumped down to hook 
on the wine casks. In furabhng about to get the hooks on 
the first cask, they discovered that it was empty, and, swing- 
ing the hooks to one side, they caught hold of it by the 
chimes and tossed it out on deck. The lieutenant was 
standing by the hatchway, and saw the whole proceeding. 
He turned and looked at me, and never said a word. But 
the look he gave me froze my blood. I knew I was elected, 
and if I could have got ashore, even if it had not been too 
far to swim, I would have gladly taken my chances among 
the Indians and wild cats, rather than stay and face Angehno 
and his tame cat. 



BUCKED AND GAGGED 22/ 

But, as usual, luck was against me. He suspected Louis 
and Jones too ; and in a few minutes we three were below, 
ironed hand and foot. We tried to keep each other's 
courage up, but it was a tough job. We knew he had no 
right to flog us ; but we also knew he had the power, if he 
chose to exercise it, and we began to fear very much that 
he would. 

The next day the captain — or, rather, the lieutenant 
commanding, for she didn't rate a captain — went ashore 
to some kind of an entertainment, prepared by the mihtary 
commandant of the post. And the " first luff," after firing in 
a few rounds of aguardiente to strengthen his backbone, 
ordered all hands called to witness punishment ; and we 
poor culprits were paraded on deck in all our misery, to be 
flogged for a Chilian hoUday. Angelino and his cat were 
conspicuously present. The lieutenant made us an address, 
in which he recounted all the facts in the case, winding up 
with the statement that he purposed to make an example 
of the three Gringo thieves now in custody. With that, 
Bill Jones, who had, as well as the rest of us, been treated 
to a pull at a friend's tripa, protested, first, that the case 
had not been proven against us ; secondly, that the lieu- 
tenant was exceeding his authority in ordering us flogged, 
both of which arguments were undoubted facts ; and third, 
as he warmed to his work he swore that if the bloody Dago 
cat touched his back, he would appeal to the admiral com- 
manding the British Pacific Squadron, and have every one 
of their bloody Dago men-of-war blown clean out of water. 
To all of which the heutenant simply answered, in his haughty, 
Spanish manner, "Silencio Ladron ! " and he ordered Louis 
to be stripped and seized up. Poor old Louis, at this, 
began to blubber outright, and beg " mi teniente " to let 
him off just this once. 

What the poor old fellow really said on this occasion, one 



228 ON MANY SEAS 

would have needed to understand English, French, and 
Spanish in order to comprehend, for he mixed his language 
worse than ever before; but the "luff" was obdurate, and 
meant business. So poor old Louis's shirt came off with 
a jerk, and he was married hard and fast to the gunner's 
daughter, with his bare back turned up to the wintry sun, 
and the big tears rolling down his cheeks from his bloodshot 
eyes, and soaking into his poor old beard that I had seen 
on that ever-memorable night soaked so full of red wine. 
" Boatswain, do your duty." — " Guardian a la porta." 
The first was the heutenant's voice, ordering Angehno to 
flog Louis. The second was the quartermaster of the watch, 
calling for the boatswain's mate (Angelino) to pipe the side. 
He had seen the commander approaching, and with him in 
the boat were the military staff and several ladies. The 
lieutenant saw his game .was blocked, and he ordered Louis 
released from the gun ; and in his flurry to obliterate all 
trace of what had been going on, he forgot to order us back 
in irons, so we were allowed to go free. And what a long 
breath of relief I took ! 

But he was not through with us yet. He was balked of 
the flogging, but not of his revenge. The following night 
we lay at anchor in Cable. It is an open bay, and there 
was a pretty rough sea running in, so that the little hooker 
rolled and tumbled about quite lively. I took the "luff" 
ashore in the evening, and waited at the little wharf until 
after twelve o'clock for him. When he came down to the 
boat, he had a pretty good load on, and his first salute was 
that I was drunk, which, as I was not a drinking man, was 
absurd. When we got aboard, he sent for the master-at- 
arms, and ordered him to bring up his assistant and two 
pairs of handcuffs and leg-irons. Old Louis was summoned 
from his hammock, and came up trembling, and all ready 
to burst into tears. We were both ironed, hand and foot, 



BUCKED AND GAGGED 229 

while His Eminence strutted up and down the deck, cursing 
us for Gringo thieves and dogs, and everything else he could 
think of. "You escaped me once," said he. " But I have 
you now, you Gringo brutes, and I'll teach you to violate 
the laws of Chile ! " 

Here old Louis, catching at a straw, as the proverbial 
drowning man is said to do, and hoping, no doubt, to appease 
somewhat the wrath of the mighty lieutenant, shouted in a 
feeble and doleful manner, "Viva Chile." The only response 
which this patriotic outburst drew from the " teniente " 
was an order to the master-at-arms to "gag them both." 
Belaying-pins and spun yarn were soon forthcoming. Our 
jaws were forced open to their widest extent, the belaying- 
pins inserted and lashed fast around the backs of our heads. 
A belaying-pin is about an inch in diameter, and made of 
hard wood. In putting in the gags, both the master-at- 
arms and his assistant took particular pains to be as rough 
and brutal as they could, forcing them roughly into our 
mouths, cutting our lips, and nearly splitting us back to the 
ears. Then they lashed them good and tight. Inside of 
five minutes I thought I should certainly go mad. It didn't 
seem possible that any human being could inflict such tort- 
ure on another. But our tormentor simply walked the deck, 
cursing and reviling us as before. 

Poor old Louis staggered over to where the lieutenant 
was standing, and, falling on his knees, put up his manacled 
hands, and groaned as best he could behind his gag a dumb 
petition for mercy. A fierce gleam shot from the " lufPs " 
eyes, as, turning to the master-at-arms, he said, " Buck 
them." Capstan bars were brought. One after the other 
we were forced to a sitting position on the deck. Our 
handcuffed hands were forced down over our knees far 
enough so that the handspike could be shoved through 
under our knees, but above our arms. To force us into 



230 ON MANY SEAS 

this position was all that the master-at-arms and his mate 
could do ; for it required that every joint and muscle should 
be stretched to its utmost. But once the handspike was in 
place, of course we were fast for good. 

A cold pouring rain came on, and we were, of course, 
drenched to the skin, and being absolutely helpless, the 
heavy pitching and rolhng of the vessel at her anchor caused 
us to tumble about the deck like a couple of empty barrels, 
bumping painfully against everything there was to bump 
against. 

I don't know 'how long Louis retained his senses ; for of 
course it was impossible to communicate with each other, 
being gagged as well as bucked, and it was only once in a 
while, during my helpless rolling about, that I even knew 
where he was. Once we collided, and I remember a faint 
feehng of thankfulness for having for once hit something 
soft. 

It is the greatest wonder in the world that our brains were 
not beaten out ; for I know that sometimes I brought up with 
such terrific force against a hatch-combing or a stanchion 
that if it had been my head that made the contact, it must 
surely have been stove in. Perhaps it was something of that 
kind that finally put the quietus on me ; at any rate, my 
remembrance of what occurred that night after I was bucked 
is very hazy ; it is like a horrible nightmare. Something 
that was too terrible to be true, and yet I know it was true ; 
for I have marks on my body to this day to prove it, and I 
have never since been free from the rheumatism contracted 
on that terrible night. I heard afterwards — long afterwards 
— that the lieutenant, leaving orders that we were not to be 
released except on an order from himself, went below to his 
drunken slumbers, and left us bucked and gagged on the 
rolling deck and in the deluge of cold rain, where the com- 
mander found us, when he came on deck in the morning, to 



BUCKED AND GAGGED 23 1 

all appearance dead. He ordered us turned over to the 
ship's doctor, a young fellow who knew as much about 
medicine as the average downcast mooly cow knows about 
the problems of Euchd. 

It was some time in the afternoon that I regained con- 
sciousness, and, startled at the sight of broad daylight, 
attempted to jump out of my hammock, only to find, first, 
that I had no more power over my limbs than if they had 
been lead castings, and secondly, that every nerve in my 
body ached as though I had been run through a forty-horse- 
power threshing-machine. It was weeks before I left my 
hammock, and poor old Louis never recovered, never went 
on duty again. We buried him at sea a few months after- 
wards, a victim to supreme authority placed in the hands 
of an irresponsible drunkard. 



CHAPTER XXV 

The Peruvian Fleet. — A Free Fight on Shore. — The 
Police routed. — A Wholesale Jail Delivery. — Re- 
treat OF the Peruvian Fleet. 

On our return to Valparaiso from this trip, we found a 
Peruvian fleet in the bay. Now though Peru is a sister 
repubhc, there is no love lost between Chilian and Peru- 
vian men-of-war's-men. We soon saw liberty boats going 
ashore from the Peruvian fleet, and at once there was a 
spontaneous request for liberty aboard all the Chilian ships ; 
and whether our officers entered into the spirit of the thing 
or not, I don't know ; but certain it is that never before were 
so many liberty boats seen leaving the sides of all the ships 
at once as there were that day. 

When we got ashore, we found that the Peruvians had 
captured the town. All the dance-houses, grog-shops, and 
other places of amusement were full of them. We were not 
"in it." So we reassembled on the Mole and were organ- 
ized into squads of from six to ten by the Esmeralda's boat- 
swain, with orders to scout all over the place, lick all the 
Peruvians we could find, and drive them off the earth. 

The modus operandi was for one man to step inside the 
door of whatever house of entertainment was suspected of 
harbouring Peruvians, and shout " Viva Chile mi^rcoles ! " 
when, if any Peruvians were present, they were in duty 
bound to respond with "Viva Peru ! " It then became the 

232 



WHOLESALE Jx\IL DELIVERY 233 

duty of the advance guard to step up to the offender, and, 
with a " toma carrajo ! " belt him one in the nose. The 
other Peruvians present, thinking that but one Chileno was 
running amuck among them, would pile on to him, and 
our reserve would then furnish the surprise party. 

The scheme worked beautifully, and in less than half an 
hour from the time we separated at the Mole, every Peru- 
vian in Valparaiso was on the run out towards the railroad. 

Our lady friends, seeing that we were likely to be the 
victors, now ranged themselves on our side, and did yeo- 
man's service in scaring the enemy out of unsuspected 
hiding-places. They also stood by us when the Peruvians 
made a short rally on the beach outside of town, under 
the leadership of a big negro, who, yelling "Viva Peru !" 
" Chile miercoles," called on his retreating shipmates to 
follow him to victory or death. Vain boast ! They were 
the invaders of our domestic peace. We were battling for 
our homes and hearthstones, and that, too, under the very 
eyes of our wives and sweethearts, and with the knowledge 
that if we permitted the barbarian hordes of the north to 
vanquish us, they would immediately usurp our places at 
the hearthstones, and also in the affections of our woman- 
kind. What wonder, then, that we fought like tigers? 

The Peruvians, arming themselves with the stones that lay 
abundantly around, closed up, and awaited the onslaught. 
And they hadn't long to wait, either ; for, arming ourselves 
with the same kind of ammunition, we came on at a wild 
charge, yelling "Viva Chile, muerte a los perros Peruvianos ! " 
and keeping up a continuous fusillade of stones as we came. 

There was no such thing as stop for us ; we im^st win. 
So, although they received us with a gaUing, point-blank 
broadside, and many of our gallant fellows bit the dust, we 
never slacked our pace for an instant. And now, as we 
neared the hostile forces, knives began to gleam here and 



234 ON MANY SEAS 

there on "hoih sides, and things were assuming quite a 
serious aspect, when, suddenly, the Peruvians, their hearts 
faiUng them, broke and fled for dear Hfe ; but not until we 
had captured their leader, the big negro, and half a dozen 
others, whom we pommelled and kicked to our hearts' con- 
tent, then took them back to Valparaiso, filled them up with 
aguardiente and anisado, and finally shipped every man jack 
of them in the Chilian navy, where, for all that I know, they 
may be yet. 

On our way back to town we met a large squad of " vigi- 
lantes " — the native police — coming out to quell the dis- 
turbance. Now the vigilantes were our natural foes ; for as 
they represented the law and order element, just so cer- 
tainly Jack ashore represents the lawless and disorderly. 
And there was never a lack of old scores to be settled with 
those gentlemen. They wore a military uniform, and carried 
a great long cavalry sabre that dangled and clattered along 
behind them, and gave them quite a terrific and imposing 
appearance ; but they knew no more about handling it than 
they did about handling a typewriter, while we were all more 
or less expert at single-sticks — cutlass drill. A favourite 
sport with us was to congregate in one of the big dance- 
halls upon Main Top Hill, raise a ruction there, inviting 
the interference of the police, and there, arming ourselves 
with broomsticks or anything we could get hold of, give 
them battle. It was only fun to disarm them ; for they knew 
no better than to expose the elbow of the sword arm, when 
a sharp crack on the funny-bone would cause Mr. Vigilante 
to drop his sabre in spite of himself. It would then be 
seized by the victor, and in a few minutes we would have 
them on the run, chasing them through the streets, and 
whacking them mercilessly with the flats of their own 
swords. 

When we got tired, we would go down to the Mole, pitch 



WHOLESALE JAIL DELIVERY 235 

the sabres overboard, and go back to our amusement. And 
as the alcaide would never fine or imprison a marinero who 
had the name of a Chileno man-of-war in his cap, the only 
revenge they could get was when they were able to surround 
one or more of us by overwhelming numbers ; and then, 
indeed, we tasted the flat of the sabre ourselves, and also 
had a chance to acquire a choice lot of up-country epithets 
expressive of supreme hatred and contempt. 

You can imagine, then, the thrill of joy that pervaded 
our hearts as, returning flushed with victory, we espied our 
foe approaching and in force ; for if there was any one thing 
that we desired then, it was fresh worlds to conquer, and 
here they came. The ladies, too, were as bitterly opposed 
to the police as ourselves, and they joined in right manfully 
w'ith us, as, taking the initiative, we charged them with a wild 
hurrah and a broadside of stones. They didn't even make 
as good a stand as the Peruvians ; for they fled without firing 
a shot, and encumbered as they were with their unwieldy 
sabres, they tripped and fell over them by dozens. We 
would give the prostrate ones a passing kick and leave them 
to the tender mercies of the viragoes who brought up our 
rear, and they lit on them like buzzards on a dead mule. 
They kicked them, tore their clothes, and reviled and abused 
them in a most scandalous manner. 

In the meantime, having disposed of the police force, 
we returned to Valparaiso, monarchs of all we surveyed. 
The citizens, who hated the Peruvians with a cordial and 
brotherly hatred, gave us an ovation. Nothing was good 
enough for us. We could go anywhere, call for anything 
we wanted, and our uniform paid the bill. We would also 
receive " mil gracias " — a thousand thanks — for having 
bestowed the honour of our attention on the humble citizen. 

Things were coming our way gloriously, when, at about 
eight o'clock in the evening, blue-jackets could be seen 



236 ON MANY SEAS 

hurrying about the streets, notifying all stragglers to assem- 
ble on the Mole at once. What could the matter be? Had 
the Peruvians obtained reinforcements and returned, or had 
the pohce procured cannon from the forts and come back 
prepared to uphold the majesty of the law? Neither one. 
But the police had stolen a march on us, and while we had 
been complacently accepting the adulations of the populace, 
they had quietly rounded up some fifty or sixty of our 
lady friends, and had them hard and fast in the "jug." 
Word had somehow been received of this coup on the part 
of the police, and it was at once decided that they must be 
released; but how? 

A council of war was called, and as a result of about five 
minutes' confab, two shore-boats put off, containing com- 
mittees of sailors. One went under the bows of the Chaca- 
biico and one to the Esmeralda. The forecastle sentries 
were quieted, — by means of tripas, — and the two boats 
shortly returned, each with a brand-new coil of ratline in 
her. Four men were told off, who, dividing themselves into 
pairs, shoved a stick through each coil of ratline, and, 
shouldering their burdens, followed the big German chief 
boatswain's mate of the Esmeralda up towards Main Top 
Hill, while the rest wandered off to the rear of the city. 

The Valparaiso calaboose, a wooden structure, stood 
quite near to the edge of the cliff which surrounds the rear 
of the city, the city itself being built between this chff 
and the beach. Probably the cliff at this place was a hun- 
dred feet or more in height. All hands, with the exception 
of the boatswain's mate and his committee, gathered silently 
in the quiet streets at the foot of the chff, while tlie others 
went up above, passed an end of each coil of ratline around 
the jail and made it fast. Then came the deep voice of the 
boatswain's mate : " Guarda abajo " (Look out below), and 
the answer from below, " Larga," and down tumbled the 



WHOLESALE JAIL DELIVERY 23/ 

two coils among us. We stretched the two ends down two 
parallel streets, and dividing ourselves as nearly as possible 
into two equal gangs, manned them both. 

We took a strain on them, and then came a voice from 
above: " Estan listos abajo?" and the answer, " Todos 
listos." Then the pipe rang out merrily from the cHff, 
" Walk away," and we walked away. At the same instant 
the full moon broke through a cloud, as if to shed light on 
our dark deed, and looking back we could see the two parts 
of the rope, stretched like harpstrings through the air, and 
the silhouette of the big boatswain's mate on the edge of 
the cliff, with his pipe to his lips, giving us the music. 
There were nearly two hundred sturdy Jacks on each end 
of the line, and something would have to come pretty soon. 

Finally all hands, with one accord, shouted out, " Ahora, 
ahora, de la guasca, carrajo," and stamping along, the jail 
could be seen to rise slowly off the ground on the far side, 
and in less than a minute more it had turned over on its 
bilge, and as there was no bottom or floor of any kind, the 
imprisoned inmates were all out of doors. I don't believe 
there was ever such another jail delivery before or since. 

The pipe sang out " belay." We tied our ropes to con- 
venient trees, and sending up a shout of victory, went up to 
welcome the martyrs back to their homes and firesides. 
Oh ! there was fun in Valparaiso in those days. 

The next morning not a Peruvian ship was to be seen in 
the bay, and it was currently reported, and believed, too, 
that the Peruvian admiral, when he got outside, flogged 
nearly the whole fleet for allowing themselves to be licked 
and chased out of town by a mob of Chileno cholos^ Gringo 
beach-combers, and — ladies. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Three Sailormen with Money. — I squander my Capital, 

DESERT THE NaVY, AND SHIP ON A WhALER. 

We were supposed to be paid monthly, but as the Ancud 
was mostly down the coast, and as Valparaiso was the only 
place where we could get paid, we frequently skipped a 
pay-day or two ; for if we were not there at the time, we 
didn't get any pay until next time. So it came about that 
after I had been about three years in the navy, I had $iio 
or so to draw ; and as that was the biggest pay I had ever 
had since I joined, and as of course the very fact of my 
having so much proved that I hadn't had any money at all 
for a good while before, I determined to have some fun. 
So I picked out two chums, each of whom had more money 
than I did ; we got forty-eight hours' leave and went ashore. 
I will not relate our adventures in detail ; suffice it to say 
that they were more or less discreditable, and I found 
myself, at the end of three days, without money, and in 
danger of a flogging for overstaying my leave. As I strolled 
about the town, considering the situation, I came across a 
fellow who introduced himself to me as George Davis, a 
New Yorker. How he came to be in Valparaiso, I don't 
know to this day, although we were intimate companions 
for over a year. 

During our conversation, he remarked that there was a 
Nantucket whaler in port, looking for men. She was going 

238 



SHIP ON A WHALER 239 

to Callao to be sold, and he thought he would ship in her. 
He also asked me why I didn't go. I had not thought of 
leaving the navy, but when he spoke disparagingly of " that 
damned Dago navy which it was a disgrace to a white man 
to belong to," I thought perhaps he was right, and besides 
it was getting to be an old story. 

Ever since the affair of the wine, I had not stood as well 
in the lieutenant's estimation as I did before, and besides I 
had accomplished the principal object I had in view when 
I joined ; that is, I had learned to speak the language with 
such perfect ease and fluency that I rather preferred it to 
English. So with very little persuasion I went down to the 
shipping office with him, and we signed articles in the bark 
Bahio, of Nantucket, for Callao. The captain told us he 
was going to Callao to sell the bark, and that if any whales 
came alongside and tried to chmb up the chain-plates, he 
would take them in, but he was not going cruising. Oh, no ! 

The next morning we went aboard, and as I was walking 
across the Mole toward the whale boat, I saw "mi teniente," 
the one who nearly flogged me, and did buck and gag me, 
and who, four days before, had given me forty-eight hours' 
leave. He was waiting for his boat and talking to a citizen. 
I walked almost over his toes and looked him squarely in 
the eye ; but he didn't recognize me in my shore togs, and 
that was the best chance he ever had to do so. 

There went on board with us in the boat another new 
hand, " Billy," a little weazened Liverpool Englishman. 
He was a young fellow, but had a whisker like an old daddy. 
Billy was a first-class seaman in every respect, and he and I 
became firm friends. Arrived on board, I was very much 
surprised to find how clean the ship was ; for it is a popular 
belief among merchant seamen that " blubber hunters " 
are grease and soot from keel to truck. But the Bahio 
was as clean as a yacht. One reason was that she was 



240 ON MANY SEAS 

engaged only in sperm-whaling, and another perhaps was 
that she hadn't had a " cut " for nearly a year when I joined 
her. And how strange it sounded to hear the genuine 
Yankee lingo after so many years away from it. 

There were only a few Scrap Islanders in the forecastle, 
and the remainder of the crew forward was composed of 
Kanakas and Western Island Portuguese. 

When a whaler is fitted out from home, she takes her 
officers, boatswains, and a few foremast hands and steers 
for the Western Islands (Azores). Arrived there, a boat is 
lowered and a box of new boots put in it. The crew pull 
ashore into some convenient little bay surrounded by 
woods, and, landing, they open the box of boots and 
stand them all along in a row. Then one man begins at 
one end of the row and pulls all the boots on and off again, 
one after the other. They then board their boat and pull 
off around the point out of sight, and the natives, who 
have been watching them from the woods, come down and 
try the boots on. When the officer in charge of the boat 
thinks they have had time enough to be fitted, he comes 
back, and the poor 'Gees, being unable to run with the boots 
on, are easily captured and carried off whaling. I know this 
to be a fact ; for the whalei^s told me of it themselves. 

The Kanakas, natives of the Sandwich Islands, are expert 
whalemen, and are usually to be found in the capacity of 
boat-steerers. We had two of them ; one, called Napoleon, 
died on board ; the other, with the less illustrious name of 
John and said to be his brother, looked like a veritable 
cannibal, for his face was tattooed in such a grotesque man- 
ner that if he had been clothed in an old pfug-hat and a 
string of glass beads round his waist, he would have only 
needed to be armed with a blackthorn shillalah to make a 
most formidable appearance. Yet they were two of the 
mildest-mannered men I ever saw. Neither could speak 



SHIP ON A WHALER 24 1 

a word of English except to say "Yeth," and "Ah blow" 
on discovering whales from the masthead ; but they knew 
their trade and were valuable men. 

The old man headed her pretty well off-shore, and after we 
had been out a few days there came a ringing chorus from 
the lookout in the fore and main crow's-nests of " Ah blow, 
ah blow-blow-blow-blow-blo-o-o-o-o-o-o-w ! " We who were 
in the watch below tumbled up pell-mell, to find every- 
thing on deck in a great flurry. The watch were getting the 
line-tubs into the boats, and the old man was running up 
the fore rigging with his spyglass slung around his neck. 

A large sperm-whale had been raised a couple of points 
on the lee bow, rolling leisurely along ; and as the Bahio 
had not had a "cut" in over fifteen months, all hands 
were intensely interested. We pitched in and helped the 
watch get the boats ready, which only took a few minutes, 
for everything pertaining to the business was in the most 
perfect order ; and then, as in addition to being placed in 
watches we had also been assigned to boats, we took our 
stations ready to lower at the word, " Let fall ! " 

Two men in each boat to bear her off from the ship's 
side and unhook the tackles ; the rest at the falls to lower. 
We were nearing the whale rapidly and watching the old 
man anxiously, when what was our surprise to see him 
slowly close his glass, sling it around his neck again, and 
come deliberately down from the fore-topsail yard, where he 
had been carefully watching the whale. He never opened 
his head until he arrived on the quarter-deck, and then he 
told the man at the wheel to keep her on her course again, 
and ordered to " belay all," and take the line-tubs out of 
the boats again, and go below the watch. 

Here was mystery with a vengeance, — a professional 
whaler declining to go down after a big sperm-whale. But 
the mystery was soon cleared up by the third mate coming 



242 ON MANY SEAS 

forward and telling us that the whale we saw taking it so 
comfortably not half a mile on our lee beam was none other 
than the notorious " Callao Tom," the only whale in the 
whole world that nobody ever molests. He had been too 
long at the business to be caught by whalemen's tricks, 
which he knew just as well as they did, and had made 
a record for himself by chewing up all the boats that 
had ever been sent after him and killing many a sturdy 
whaleman. 

He had made himself known to generations of whalers 
before us, and, as he was distinctly marked by well-defined 
and peculiar white patches on his sides, he roamed the ocean 
at his own sweet will, and had done so for years before any 
of us were born, and is probably doing it yet. He was an 
unsociable old curmudgeon, for he was never seen in com- 
pany with any of his species ; and, in fact, it was well known 
to be a useless waste of time to cruise in his neighbourhood ; 
for Callao Tom is monarch of all he surveys, and the sim- 
ple fact of his presence was proof positive that no other 
whales were on that cruising-ground. So the old man kept 
her off a little more, and we then learned that our objective 
point, instead of Callao, was the Galapagos Islands, a nota- 
ble sperm-whale ground in years gone by ; but now the 
whales have been pretty well exterminated, and are very 
scarce everywhere. 

I took a lively interest in the business, for to me it had 
a peculiar charm. The idea of going down in those frail 
boats to capture and kill the mighty sperm-whale in his own 
element, fascinated me, and I could listen to the third mate's 
yarns by the hour, and never get enough. He was a 'Gee ; 
as young and handsome a man as you would find in a day's 
sail anywhere, spoke English like a native Scrap Islander, 
and was a genial, pleasant, and companionable man. 

And yet every Islander on board, although he could 



SHIP ON A WHALER 243 

easily have taken any four of them and knocked their heads 
together, despised him because he was a d 'Gee. 

I once spoke to the second mate on the subject of this 
apparently unreasonable dislike, and cited the instance of 
the third mate, who, although a 'Gee, was a mighty fine man. 
"Yes," said he, "as 'Gees go he is a pretty good one, but, 
I tell ye, you don't know 'em. My old uncle, who was 
captain of a whaler for forty years, used to say that you 
couldn't trust the best of 'em. He said you might pick 
out the very best 'Gee you ever saw, run him through the 
mincing machine, and mince him fine ; then put him in the 
try pot and try him out for forty-eight hours, and strain him 

through a fine linen rag, and d him, he was nothing but 

a 'Gee after all. And," added the second mate, "you can 
bet your life the old man knew what he was talking about." 

I found from conversation with the old whalers, that it 
was their belief that, with the exception of " Callao Tom " and 
all whales who, like him, were marked with white patches, 
the sperm-whale never shows fight, nor intentionally damages 
either boats or men ; for they are a timid and cowardly lot. 
So that, in dealing with them, the whaleman's greatest care 
is not to frighten them, but to keep out of the way of acci- 
dental injury from their immense and powerful bodies. One 
great and important part of the business is in knowing 
how to go up to them, and get "fast" without "galleying" 
(scaring) them; for nothing can be done with "gallied" 
whales. They will scoot off dead in the wind's eye, and 
you will never see them again. Consequently, the officer 
or boatswain who, by his awkwardness or mismanagement, 
" galleys " a school of whales is a lucky man if he escapes 
being disrated and sent before the mast. 

So, too, with the boat-steerer. No man, not even the 
captain himself, will tell him when to dart. He may take 
his own time, and some boat-steerers will never dart until 



244 ON MANY SEAS 

they are at "wood and blackskin," — that is, until the boat 
actually touches the whale, — and the officer in charge of 
the boat, and who steers her until the irons are in the whale, 
must put her in that position for him. Then again, there 
are some few experts who won't allow the boat to come 
nearer than two or three seas from the whale, before darting. 
These men, however, are not numerous, and are usually 
Kanakas. Their method is to pitchpole the harpoon ; that 
is, dart it up in the air, and let it curve over and fall with 
great force, point downwards, into the whale. To do this, 
he must be not only a good judge of distance, but a power- 
ful man, for a harpoon is very heavy ; and he must also be 
as quick as a flash, in order to pick up the second iron, and 
have it entered before the whale can sound on feehng the 
first. 

On leaving the ship's side, the officer in charge steers the 
boat on to the whale, the boat-steerer pulls the bow-oar until 
he gets the order to stand up, when he peaks his oar, stands 
up and grasps the iron that is fast on the end of the line ; 
this is the first iron. The second is bent on a short warp, 
the other end of which runs on the main line with a loop or 
bowline, so that should the first iron miss, or afterwards 
pull out, it will toggle in the bowline of the short warp, and 
you hang on by the second. The two irons lie in forks 
diagonally across the boat's bows ready to his hand, so 
that, after darting the first, he need not take his eye off the 
whale, but instantly seizing the other, send it home to the 
hitches if possible ; although some old hands, seeing their 
first iron soHdly home, do not bother with the second. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Whaling and Whaling Gear. — My Private Harpoon. — 
I STRIKE A Porpoise. — A Lively Rock. 

It is in getting on to the whale that the experienced 
officer shows his knowledge of the business. A sperm- 
whale, on account of his huge square head, can see neither 
before nor behind him, but only off on each beam ; and 
since they travel across the wind, when not gallied, the 
boats steer end on to them, one boat keeping just alongside 
on their weather beam. This boat they can see, and as 
they go lazily along, if you are in the weather boat you will 
see them roll up their little eyes at you, evidently wonder- 
ing what you are doing there ; but, not seeing the other 
boats, they have no fear. The others now select the biggest 
whales in the school and fasten to them, when instantly the 
whole school will sound — dive, that is — as if they had all 
been struck at once. 

From the masthead I have seen the ocean dotted thickly 
with whales as far as the boundaries of the horizon, and 
instantly one was struck every tail went up, and they dis- 
appeared as if by magic. 

While the officer in charge of the weather boat is amus- 
ing the whales so that the others can get fast, he is also 
sheering up gradually alongside the one he has selected for 
his own, and if he fails to get fast to him before they all 
turn flukes, he watches for their return to the surface, when, 

245 



246 ON MANY SEAS 

if they are not yet gallied, he too will get fast. Sometimes 
they work it so quietly and so slick that the foolish whales 
will stay right there and let the boats fasten to, and kill sev- 
eral of them, before they find out what is going on. But 
when they do, their big, square heads come up out of 
water, their tails go under, and the way that school of 
whales scull themselves to windward is a caution to ocean 
greyhounds. 

The boat-steerer, having "fastened," goes aft and takes 
the steering oar from the officer, who goes forward and 
kills the whale. Under the port gunwale of the boat three 
lances are hung in brackets. A sperm-whale lance has a 
head shaped like the ace of spades, with a thin razor-like 
edge all around, so that it can cut its way both in and out. 
It is about five feet long, and is fast to a wooden lance pole 
considerably longer, so that the whole thing is about twelve 
feet long. This he darts into the whale the whole length of 
the iron shank, a little behind the fin, and away deep down 
under water, untilthe poor animal, spouting up huge chunks 
of his sHced-up vitals, finally gives up the ghost. 

I begged an old harpoon from the third mate, ground and 
oilstoned it up until it would cUp a hair, strapped it and 
rigged it to a wooden shank like the regular irons belonging 
to the boats. I then made a wooden sheath to save the 
edge from injury, and hung it out on the dolphin striker 
under the bows, in readiness for porpoises, albacores, or 
any unlucky fish that should come that way. 

I had shipped in the whaler by the same name as I bore 
in the Chihan navy, — James Jackson. Consequently I was 
known on board as Jimmy, also as the man-o'-war's-man, 
also as the blue-shirt feller. 

I kept a sharp lookout for days without avail, until just 
before we arrived on the Galapagos ground, as I came on 
deck at four o'clock in the afternoon, and took my usual 



GAMMING 247 

peep over the bows, I almost fell overboard with joy to see 
half a dozen big, fat porpoises gliding smoothly and swiftly 
along right under the dolphin striker. I quietly shpped 
down to the boatswain's locker and got a single block and 
strap which I carried out and made fast to the bowsprit 
shroud, then I rove the end of the flying jib downhaul 
through it, and leaving myself slack enough to strike the 
porpoise, made it solidly fast. I then went out and bent 
the other end on to my harpoon, and watched my chance. 
You see I didn't expect to strike any of them, and didn't 
want a jeering, snickering lot of smarties passing remarks 
on my dexterity ; that was why I was so quiet about it. 

Everybody, even the old man, knew that I had the iron 
out there ; so I preferred to miss, if miss I must, by myself. 
My heart kept coming up into my mouth as the old girl 
gracefully bowed her head to the gentle swells that were run- 
ning, thereby bringing me almost within touching distance of 
the glossy black backs of the porpoises right under my feet. 

I would grasp the iron with a grip that was almost enough 
to crack the tough hickory shank ; but, fearing that I might 
miss, I would allow the opportunity to pass, and in another 
second it would be too late ; for, rising on the next sea, she 
would lift me fathoms above them. But there was nothing 
lost by that ; for, true to their natures, they would maintain 
their positions for hours, merely swerving a little to the 
right and left once in a while. I feared that if I darted and 
missed, they would clear out altogether. And so I let my 
opportunities, like sunbeams, pass me by, until, happening to 
look up, I saw the old Portuguese second mate, Mr. Silva, 
looking at me from the topgallant forecastle. Mr. Fisher, 
to whom I have previously alluded as second mate, was third 
mate at this time. 

Old Silva was as homely and savage a looking old 'Gee 
as I ever saw. His eyes were as black as coal-tar, and both 



248 ON MANY SEAS 

of them looked directly at the bridge of his nose. His 
heavy old gray moustache was cut square off and stuck 
straight out. As I looked up, his eyes were flashing, and 
he was rapidly chewing tobacco in suppressed excitement. 
I never expect to see such another homely-looking man as 
he was at that minute. 

" Why in h don't ye strike ? " said he. 

It was all I needed to spur me on ; and as the old barkey 
kindly brought me down close to my prey just at that mo- 
ment, I gave a mighty lunge and sent the old harpoon clean 
through the unfortunate porpoise who happened to be directly 
under me at the time. Away he went Hke a streak of blue 
fire ; but the Hne was well fast in on deck, and the iron tog- 
gled under his belly and brought him up all standing. He 
was as fast as though he had been bolted to the mainmast. 

I nearly fell overboard with the momentum of the blow. 
Old Silva roared out an unintelligible order, but it brought 
all hands up on the forecastle in a hurry ; and the way they 
toiled on that dovvnhaul and yanked Mr. Porpoise out of 
water was beautiful to see. A rope's end was thrown to 
me, and I quickly slipped a running bowline over his quiv- 
ering tail, and they had him in on deck. When old Silva 
saw that the iron had gone clean through him, he clapped 
me on the shoulder, nearly breaking my back, and roared 
out, "Well done, boy!" 

The old man heard the racket, and, coming up out of the 
cabin and seeing the crowd on the forecastle, called out : 
"What's the matter? Has the blue-shirt feller tumbled 
overboard? " 

" No, sirree," said Silva. " That blue-shirt feller has 
struck a porpoise, and done it as handsome as I ever seed 
it done, tiew ! " 

After that I was the white-headed boy for a good while. 
When we came to open the porpoise, we found that 



GAMMING 249 

the iron had split his heart as fairly in two equal halves 
as the cook could have done it with a knife if he had had 
it lying on the table before him ; and old Silva went into 
more ecstasies over that fact. We had porpoise steak that 
night for supper ; and I towed the head overboard until the 
flesh was all off of it, and it was a snow-white and beautiful 
rehc, which I intended to take home with me as a trophy of 
my skill. But alas ! few of my projects were ever realized, 
and this was no exception to the rule. 

When we arrived at the Galapagos, we found a consider- 
able fleet of whalers there, standing off and on, waiting for 
the whales, the whales that never came. 

As we were the latest arrivals from the coast, visiting 
was in order, " gamming " whalers call it. For the next 
two or three days there was nearly always a boat alongside 
from some vessel or other in quest of the latest news, and 
to see if there were any letters from home. This colony, if 
so I may call it, of whalers was very friendly, and the insti- 
tution of gamming was in high favour ; for they were all 
acquaintances and neighbours at home, and as they spent 
most of their lives here, gamming was equivalent to the gos- 
sipy visits of people on shore. 

The boats' crews all came aboard and brought with them 
articles of " scrimshaw " ^ to exchange for others, or trade 
for such scrimshaw stock as they needed for some job they 
had on hand. Stories were told and songs sung, and a gen- 
eral jollification was in order. 

The Galapagos are a group of volcanic islands situated 
directly on the equator. Where we were stationed there 
was one called La Roca Redonda — the Roundback. It 
is an immense rock, looking from a litde distance like a 
huge cheese floating on the water. Its sides rise vertically 

1 A " scrimshaw " is any fancy article made by sailors in their leisure 
hours ; engraved whales' teeth, baskets, fancy ropework, and the like, all are 
scrimshaws. The term is also used as a verb, as " to scrimshaw," etc. 



250 ON MANY SEAS 

three hundred feet or more above the surface of the sea, 
and its top is perfectly flat, and as far as can be seen, 
entirely devoid of verdure of any kind. It is simply a 
naked rock on whose summit no man has ever been. 

The trade-wind blows constantly here, but the cur- 
rent changes twice with every moon ; and as the whalers 
are going nowhere, but merely wish to retain their positions 
on the ground, they stand off and on under fore topsail, 
fore topgallant sail and spanker, wearing ship every noon. I 
never saw a whaler tack. 

For two weeks the tide will be with the wind, and then, if 
the wind is light, you have to put on more sail, and perhaps 
wear at midnight as well as at noon. To keep near the 
rock is what whalers call " chasing the rock " ; but sometimes 
when the current is extra strong, or the wind extra hght, 
the rock will get away from you in spite of all you can do, 
and the fleet will be strung away out to leeward, some of 
the poorest sailers hull down, or even out of sight alto- 
gether. Then when the current turns and comes up against 
the wind, you are apt to be carried away to windward of 
the rock, so you square away and run from it. Then they 
say " the rock is chasing us." 

Every Saturday Captain Davis allowed two boats to go 
fishing — a great concession, I assure you; for had whales 
been raised when boats were off fishing, there would have 
been a fuss right away. But apparently there was little 
danger of that ; for not a whale had been seen on the Gala- 
pagos grounds for nearly two years. These weekly fishing 
excursions were very enjoyable, and we appreciated the old 
man's kindness ; for there was not in the whole fleet of fif- 
teen or twenty ships another that would allow a boat to be 
dropped in the water a minute for any purpose, except, per- 
haps, when her captain took a notion to go gamming of an 
afternoon, and that was very seldom. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

Hunting Turtles. — Promotion. — Napoleon dies in the 
Crow's-Nest. — Whales at Last. ^ Fast to a "Big Un." 

While off the Galapagos, we feasted on turtle soup. 
There was hardly a time when half a dozen or more logger- 
head turtles could not be found strolling about the decks. 
We got them when out fishing. They sleep on the surface 
of the water ; so we always kept a lookout for them, and 
when one was sighted we would get the boat astern of him, 
and sail up to him quietly, so as not to disturb his slumbers, 
the boat-steerer standing ready in the bow with the boat- 
hook. As soon as he is near enough, he reaches carefully 
over and hooks on to Mr. Turtle under the projecting front 
end of his shell, and quickly raises his head and flippers out 
of the water, thereby depriving him of his motive power. 
The bow oarsman then catches hold, and together they pull 
him into the boat. 

One day, on account of the sun being directly in his eyes. 
Napoleon missed his aim with the hook, and instead hit the 
turtle a resounding whack on what you might call his coat 
collar. This, of course, woke him up, and without stopping 
to see who called him, he plunged his head under water, 
threw his stern high in air, and started for the coral beds. 
Napoleon, seeing his prey escaping him, made a frantic jab 
with the boat-hook, and caught him by the tail at the same 
time that I, becoming equally excited, grabbed one of his 

251 



252 ON MANY SEAS 

hind flippers. But he had his executive end under water, 
where he could use it, and a Yankee sailor and a Kanaka 
boat-steerer went out of that boat like dolphins after a fly- 
ing fish. Down we went. I hung on spasmodically until 
my wind gave out, and then I let go and struck out for 
daylight. 

We must have gone down to an awful depth ; for it seemed 
as if I should never reach the surface, although I was put- 
ting in my biggest hcks. But I did at last, and came up 
with a rush, shooting out of water to my waist. When I got 
the sea- water out of my eyes so I could see, I looked about, 
and found I was not ten feet from the boat. The turtle 
must have gone down nearly plumb. 

" Whar's Napoleon? " asked the third mate. 

Before I could get breath enough to answer — bang ! up 
came Napoleon directly under the boat, nearly staving a 
hole in her. We were both pulled in, and the third mate 
reviled Napoleon for losing the boat-hook, which I dare say 
that turtle is towing about in the Pacific to this day. 

The water was so clear that you could pay out thirty 
fathoms of line, and leaning over the boat's side watch the 
big rock-cod swim lazily up to your hook, and without any 
preliminary foolishness in the way of nibbling, the bait would 
disappear in his cavernous jaws like a freight train going into 
a tunnel ; then all you had to do was to haul line. There 
was no danger of his becoming unhooked, for he took that 
bait because he wanted it. The only danger was that a 
thievish seal, noticing the preoccupied manner of the cod as 
he ascended on the end of your line gently flapping his tail 
in mild surprise, would grab the tail end, and give you a 
tussle to decide whose fish it was. 

Sometimes the seal would succeed in biting him in two, 
so that you would haul in only half a fish. Several times I 
have seen the seals hang on to a fish until it was close up to 



AH! BLOW! BLOW! ^53 

the gunwale, when some one would have to take a stretcher 
and hit him over the head to make him let go. 

Quite an annoyance in our fishing excursions was caused 
by birds. In order to have room in the boat, we wouldn't 
take the oars in, but would peak them, and leave them stick- 
ing out in their places, but high up out of water ; and the 
frigate birds, boobies, and lots of other great homely, awk- 
ward creatures as big as geese would alight on the oars, and 
sit there balancing and teetering with the roll of the boat, 
and stare at us with their great stupid eyes, and squawk. 

Scaly Neptune ! how they would squawk ; enough to 
make a crazy man sane. We would strike at them with the 
stretchers and shake the oars, but all the good it would do 
would be to dislodge them for a moment, when they would 
settle right back in their old places without losing a single 
note of the serenade. 

One of our Kanaka boat-steerers got sick, and, as a result 
of my success in striking the porpoise, I was sent to stand 
lookout in his place at the main crow's-nest, thereby consti- 
tuting me a candidate for any vacant boat-steerer's place that 
might occur. Of course it didn't set very well on the 
stomachs of the Scrap Islanders, who had been in her for 
three years, to see a green hand preferred to themselves, 
and I didn't blame them. Neither did I care for the posi- 
tion, for I had no intention of becoming a whaler ; whereas 
it would have been a great feather in the cap of any of them 
to return home as a boat-steerer. 

I was now brought in direct contact with the officers, 
although I didn't live aft ; for the outlook at the main top- 
mast crosstrees is kept by an officer and a boat-steerer and 
two sailors forward, making four men who are continually on 
the lookout for whales from sunrise. 

One day Napoleon came on deck after dinner, and started 
up the rigging to relieve the masthead. The old man told 



254 ON MANY SEAS 

him to come down and let me go up. " No," said Napoleon, 
" me go," and up he went. He hadn't been up there more 
than half an hour before the third mate, who was in the 
crow's-nest with him, began shouting frantically and incohe- 
rently to the deck. Looking up, we saw that he had hold 
of Napoleon, who was hanging limp and all doubled up over 
the iron ring of the crow's-nest. I was standing near, and 
jumping into the rigging, ran aloft to help the third mate, 
who was nearly scared out of his wits. Napoleon was stone- 
dead, and I hailed the deck for a block and gant-line and 
we sent the body down. 

The carpenter made a rough coffin, and the old man said 
we would take him ashore to-morrow and bury him. We 
were too far off-shore to make it that day, so we stood on 
all night and all the next forenoon with a hght breeze ; but 
as it was evident we couldn't make it, the captain concluded 
to bury him at sea. So the carpenter opened the box again, 
and ballasted it with old iron and holystone at the foot, and 
bored a lot of auger holes at the head for vent, and we 
carried him to the lee gangway, putting the foot of the coffin 
on the rail, while four men held up the head. The main 
topsail was backed, and the old man came down off the 
quarter-deck and said : 

" Well, boys, thar's Napoleon. Yisterday he was jist as 
well as any of ye [which wasn't so, for he had been sick a 
week]. Ye see whar he is now. That's what we've all got 
ter come to, sooner or later. Let 'im go." And we slid 
him over, with a splash, and looking over the side saw him 
bobbing up and down, perfectly erect, like a half-filled bot- 
tle. Immediately the breeze freshened, and in less than 
an hour we were so close in-shore that we had to wear 
ship and stand off again. On the outward bound tack we 
again sighted Napoleon. He had settled about a foot in 
the water, but the top of his box was still dry, and he bobbed 



AH! BLOW! BLOW! 255 

a friendly recognition to the old barkey as she passed a little 
to windward of him. But that was the last we ever saw of 
him. 

I was struck with the absolute indifference with which his 
supposed brother regarded his death. For even if they 
were not brothers, they were friends, and when Napoleon 
died, there was not left a single soul on board with whom 
he could converse, and yet he didn't seem to care the least 
bit. 

The next morning at sunrise the sea, from horizon to 
horizon, was alive with sperm-whales, big and little, and the 
old man said he guessed Napoleon must have sent them up 
to us. There was great hustling and rattling of davit tackle 
falls then, for every ship in the fleet was anxious to get her 
boats among them and make fast before they should get 
gallied. 

I'll bet that every captain in the fleet wished then that 
he had his blamed old bark hung with boats from stern to 
stern ; for it had been years and years since any of them 
had been in such a school of whales as that. But three 
boats were a full complement, and they could only hope 
that some of their boats might be lucky enough to get more 
than one whale. 

As I had never yet been alongside a whale, it was not 
considered safe to let me head the boat ; so the cook, a 
veteran spouter, took the bow-oar in our boat. The whales 
were breaching ; that is, instead of just poking their noses 
out of water to blow, they would shoot two-thirds of their 
enormous length into the air, falling on their bellies and 
sometimes on their sides with a mighty splash that kept the 
sea churned into froth, so that it looked like a snow-covered 
prairie, with a great herd of black buffaloes plunging about 
in it. This action denoted that they were playing and, if 
carefully handled, would not be easily gaUied. But it also 



256 ON MANY SEAS 

called for rare skill on the part of the officers in charge of 
the boats to avoid getting stove. 

Mr. Silva got his eye on a big hundred-barrel bull, and 
was urging on his crew, using both oars and sails to get fast 
to him, ahead of a couple of other boats that he believed 
were after the same whale. For it is the unwritten law of 
whalers that whatever ship's boat puts the first iron into a 
whale, owns that whale, no matter who may be the actual 
captor ; and as each vessel has her name stamped on all her 
harpoons, it is only necessary to discover one of her irons in 
a dead whale to estabUsh her claim, no matter if months or 
years have elapsed since the harpoon was put into him. 

I believe it is a fact that no whaler has ever disputed that 
law, although it must bear pretty hard on them in some 
cases ; so it follows that if the boats of the whole fleet were 
down after one whale, and one boat got fast to him, and by 
any means he got away, none of the others would bother 
him, even though he swam right up alongside of them. 
That was why Mr. Silva was so anxious to get an iron into 
the big fellow, the only real big one there appeared to be 
in the whole school. So away he went with the utmost reck- 
lessness right across the course of the breaching whales, as 
regardless of them as though they were only a lot of kit- 
tens, calling to his men to give way cheerily, and they did 
bend their backs too, when suddenly a small thirty-barrel 
cow breached right across the boat. Her head came up 
right by the bow-oar, and as she rose sixteen feet in the air 
the boys gave an extra tug at the oars to try to get out of 
the way ; but they hadn't time. She dropped right across 
between Mr. Silva, who was steering, and the stroke oarsman, 
who leaped backwards just in time to save himself. She cut 
the boat as squarely in two as if it had been sawed. Of course 
the two parts rolled over and the men clambered up on top 
of their pieces. Old cross-eyed Silva, after lots of spluttering 



AH! BLOW! BLOW! 25/ 

and shouting, got on top of the httle end that he had. We 
came saihng along just as he secured a seat on the keel, and he 
hailed Mr. Fisher to come and get him ; but Mr. Fisher only- 
laughed at him, for if Silva had got into our boat, he would 
have taken charge of her by right of seniority, and that Mr. 
Fisher didn't propose to let him do. 

So poor old Silva was out of it very early in the race, and 
his crew said that until the two pieces of the boat drifted 
so far apart that they couldn't hear him, he was cursing like 
seventeen pirates rolled into one. 

We kept on the even tenor of our way, looking out for a 
good-sized whale ; for Silva's choice had been fastened to 
by one of the other ship's boats before we could get up 
to it. Finally, Mr. Fisher gave orders to take in the sail, 
and get out the oars. We were now right in the thickest 
part of the school, and in danger, every second, of ex- 
periencing the same kind of a mishap as had the second 
mate. 

I had been to sea a good while, and thought I had seen 
several whales ; but I now found it was true, what the 
islanders had told me all along, that you don't see a whale 
until you get alongside of him in a boat. All that you see 
of him from the ship's deck, as he goes rolling along, is just 
the least bit of his back. And I had always thought that 
a whale was as round and slick as a porpoise, and as black 
and shiny as a patent-leather shoe. 

But now that I was right among them, and they were 
breaching, some of them their whole length out of water, 
I found, to my surprise, that their ribs stuck out like those 
of an old, broken-down horse, and their backs, instead of 
being round and glossy, were all wrinkled up and covered 
with barnacles and dirt. 

Pretty soon Mr. Fisher told the cook to " Stan' up ! " and 
I wanted to look over my shoulder, awfully ; but that is 
s 



258 ON MANY SEAS 

one of the things you mustn't do. In another moment, I 
heard the cook grunt, as, with ail his force, he drove the 
heavy, razor-edged irons into the whale's back. Zip, zip, 
the line whizzed out of the tub at my side, and " Starn all ! " 
shouted Mr. Fisher. We all backed water hard, but the 
whale had sounded ; and as he threw his broad flukes 
high in the air, and dived plumb down, he raised wagon- 
loads of salt water with his great tail, which came down on 
us in a drenching, drowning shower, filling the boat half full 
of water. But Mr. Fisher knew his business, and had laid 
the boat alongside in such a way that the cook had a fine 
chance to get in both irons well ahead on him, and at the 
same time the boat was clear of the mighty flukes, which he 
knew would go up in just that way. We now laid in our 
oars, and prepared to haul line, but not yet. He was still 
sounding, and taking the line out of the boat at such terrific 
speed that one man had to keep throwing water on the 
bow-chock to keep it from getting a-fire ; and I realized 
then what a fine thing it was that those whale-lines were 
of the finest and softest manilla obtainable, like silken cord. 
How absolutely necessary it was that they should be coiled 
as they were, so accurately in the tubs, and so carefully kept 
dry ! For, the way that line was whizzing out of the boat, 
if it had got the least bit foul in the chock, before a man 
could have brought the sharp axe down on it, which he 
held raised ready in his hand, she would have been fathoms 
deep in blue water, almost before we could have reahzed 
that we were fast. . 

One tub of line was gone, and Mr. Fisher said he must 
get a turn round the loggerhead mighty soon. After two 
or three ineffectual attempts, he finally succeeded ; and now 
the loggerhead had to be bathed too. By and bye we could 
perceive that he was not taking it quite so fast, and we got 
a round turn on the loggerhead. 



AH! BLOW! BLOW! 259 

Mr. Fisher said the whale had now turned, and was 
coming to the surface ; but would take as much or more line 
than he did going down, if we should give it to him, because 
the long bight of line sagging through this deep water kept 
up a tremendous strain. We had only about three-quarters 
of a tub left. So it became necessary to hang on to that 
as much as possible ; and, instead of letting it fly out of 
the boat, he hung on to it, and only slacked it when her 
nose would dip under water, and then only just enough to 
keep her from going under altogether. Still he was taking 
line, — too much of it. So all hands went aft, to keep her 
stern down and bow up ; and then we were in danger of 
swamping altogether, for, with all hands aft, by the time the 
bow dipped, she was nearly under water altogether. 

At last Mr. Fisher got the bare end of the Hne in his 

hand, and made it fast, saying he'd be d d if he was 

going to lose that whale, if he had to go half-way to the 
bottom after him. But Mr. Whale was nearing the surface 
now, and. Oh ! how his poor back must have hurt ! Pres- 
ently the cook shouted, " Ah ! Blow ! Blow ! " And, sure 
enough, he had come up. Mr. Fisher expressed the hope 
that he wouldn't take a notion to sound again. "For," 
said he, " if he does, we are done for, with all this line 
out." But he didn't ; he turned to windward, and began to 
scull himself along at a rate that was a caution to snakes. 

The cook came aft and took the steering oar, and Mr. 
Fisher went forward. We all faced forward, and, each 
man bracing his feet against the thwart ahead of him, 
began to haul line ; and how that boat went through the 
water ! 

We all kept as far aft as possible, to keep her bow up, 
and she went so fast that there was a ridge of water a foot 
high on each side of her. In other words, the whole after 
half of the boat was a good foot lower than the surrounding 



26o ON MANY SEAS 

water ; yet not a drop came in. The two ridges drew 
together, conforming to the shape of the boat, and, meeting, 
flowed out over the stern-post. Of course we couldn't haul 
line very fast, while going at this rate, but it was noble 
sport ! 



CHAPTER XXIX 

Hauling in Line. — The Fatal Lance. — Towing Home. 
— CuTTiNG-iN. — George Davis deserts. 

Far ahead of us we could see the old whale thrashing 
along, making a wake like a Sound steamer, and every little 
while blowing up a great white cloud of fine spray, as he 
puffed and tugged at his job. But we were gaining on him. 
The pile of hne in the tub was growing, and we could see 
him a little plainer every time we rose on a sea. But 
there was no hope of his slacking up ; he could keep on 
for weeks. So we pulled away till our arms and backs 
ached, and our hands were sore from handling the wet hne. 

Oh, but that was an awful long line ! and I thanked my 
stars that I was whaling in the tropics and not " up in the 
Ar'tic with two suits of dongaree," as the song says. 

At last we got up with him ; he never slowed down, and 
we were still tearing through the water at the apparent rate 
of seventy or eighty miles an hour when we hauled along- 
side of him, just as you would alongside a canal-boat. Then 
I saw why they are so particular to get the irons in well 
ahead on him. It is so that you can haul far enough ahead 
to give the officer a chance to reach his vitals with the 
lance. 

When we got near enough to see the harpoon, my heart 
almost misgave me. It didn't seem possible that such a 
little bit of wire as it looked to be could possibly hold that 

261 



262 ON MANY SEAS 

heavily loaded boat at the rate she was going through the 
water. The strain had stretched the harpoon-strap so that 
the wooden staff had pulled out of the socket and was 
danghng on the hne, and of course the iron shank had bent 
over so that it lay flat down on his back, and with the motion 
of the whale and the boat it slapped about on his back and 
looked as if at any moment it must break where the short 
bend was as it entered the blubber. But harpoon-shanks 
are made of the very finest, strongest, and softest of Swedish 
iron, and do not break. An iron has fulfilled its destiny 
when it captures one whale — it is never used again. 

Arrived alongside, Mr. Fisher told the cook to lay her 
off about four feet, and to my surprise, instead of jabbing 
the lance right into the whale as I expected him to do, he 
darted it down into the water at the boat's side. But I 
noticed that the monster squirmed almost double, showing 
that he had got his medicine all right. 

I noticed a great difference between harpooning and 
lancing. The harpoon is driven sohdly into his back and 
sticks there, giving you the idea of the tough impenetrable 
nature of the beast, and he takes no particular notice of it, 
except to dart away as if scared. The lance is very differ- 
ent. The lance-staff did not disappear entirely under water, 
and I could not see that it had hit anything ; it simply 
glided smoothly down until it came to rest as if from mere 
inertia, and when Mr. Fisher gave a slight jerk on the line, 
it returned readily, as though it had only been in the water, 
whereas it had in reality entered a good five feet into the 
whale's body. And what a difference in the way he received 
it ! You could see, as he twisted himself sideways, that it 
had given him a mortal pang, and you almost expected to 
hear him groan. 

Mr. Fisher did not entirely withdraw the lance, being 
satisfied that he had made a good thrust by the whale's 



CUTTING-IN 263 

actions ; but resting the pole on the gunwale of the boat, he 
turned and twisted and thrust with it, slicing and mincing 
the heart and lungs to pieces inside of him. This is called 
" poking the fire," and soon the spray from his blow-hole 
began to be tinged with crimson, and then they said " his 
chimney was a-fire." 

He now began to show signs of distress, and to slack up 
in his headlong gait ; and it was not very long before he 
quit it altogether, and simply swam round and round, 
slowly pumping up a stream of thick blood, until at last, 
poor fellow, he gave one great expiring blow, and died with 
his head to the sun. 

It seemed wicked, cruel, to take advantage of the igno- 
rance of the poor, harmless monster, and chase him up 
and slaughter him as though he was some terrible man- 
eater. 

The enormous quantity of blood spouted up by a whale 
is surprising. It seems impossible to believe that it could 
have all been contained in that body, large as it is. The 
boat and the whale appeared to float in pure blood, and for 
yards and yards around in all directions nothing else could 
be seen. 

It was a sickening sight to me ; but the old whalers did 
not mind it. Mr. Fisher said, if he thought there was any 
chance of getting another fast, he would stick a white 
flag on him, and go back to the ship. But we had been 
gone so long that there was no doubt the school had been 
gallied long ago and gone off; so we set our sail and got 
out our oars, and proceeded to tow our prize aboard. As 
he had taken us to windward, our course was before it, and 
we took a leisurely stroke and did not kill ourselves at the 
oars. But we got awfully hungry, and Mr. Fisher opened 
the keg of provisions that is always headed up in a whale- 
boat, and gave us all the hardtack we wanted. And as 



264 ON MANY SEAS 

there was tobacco in the keg, too, we took some of that, 
because we got it gratis. 

We arrived alongside about five o'clock in the afternoon, 
and found that Mr. Eastern, the mate, had got a fifty-barrel 
cow floating away to windward, with a flag on her, and had 
gone out of sight in tow of another. We made ours fast by 
the fluke-chains alongside, and then went and got his. By 
the time we got her fast, it was eight o'clock in the evening, 
and we went out and picked up Mr. Silva and his crew, who 
had put in an almighty long day on the bottom of their 
boat. 

" D him ! " said the old man ; " if he hain't got no 

better sense than ter go'n git stove the fust thing, when we 
hain't had a whale in nigh on ter two year, let him stay thar 
till the work's done." And " stay thar " he did ; and when 
we brought him and his crew and the two pieces of their 
boat aboard, Mr. Silva never said a word to the old man, 
nor the old man to him. 

But Silva did not forget how he had been left to drift 
around on the bottom of his boat for hours, when it was not 
necessary, and months afterwards, when the old man made 
a shghting remark to him one day, he replied that if he had 
put his money into some other vessel than the Bahio, per- 
haps he would not need to go to the poorhouse when he 
got back home ; a slur on the old man's abilities as a whaler, 
which he resented by shutting up and going below. 

Mr. Eastern came alongside at daylight with another little 
forty-barrel cow in tow. 

These little cows the old man called snuff-boxes. But 
if he had only got enough of them, he would have been 
well satisfied. 

We at once got up our " cutting-in " gear, and before noon 
were hard at work stripping off" the blubber, and prepar- 
ing to try out the oil. 



CUTTING-IN . 265 

After all is done, the carcass, what there is left of it, 
belongs to the sharks, who are busy steahng all the blubber 
they can during the cutting-in. It is wonderful to see them 
tear it off; for blubber is not, as I had always supposed, a 
soft, mushy, fat mess, but is as hard as an oak plank, and 
all the tools used about a whale — harpoons, lances, spades, 
and knives — must be as sharp as razors. They very soon 
lose their edges, too, requiring constant whetting Uke a 
farmer's scythe. 

But Johnnie shark turns on his back, runs his shovel- 
shaped nose up against the whale, and then, throwing his 
whole body up in the air and getting a good hold, brings 
his tail down again with a whip-lash jerk that is bound to 
start something, and it won't be his teeth either. Some- 
times, though, he gets a surprise ; for if any of the cutting-in 
gang see him in time and can reach him with the spade, 
they will cut him partly in two ; so that when he brings his 
accustomed pry to bear, there is an unfamiliar joint in him, 
which spoils his leverage, and must be very disappointing. 

A favourite amusement of the whalers is " spritsail-yard- 
ing " sharks. They make a slit either in his nose or tail, 
and shove a small spar through it, which interferes with his 
navigation ; for, if it is in his tail, it makes him resemble 
the kind of dog political orators tell us about, where the tail 
wags the dog, and if in his nose, it keeps his head afloat 
and prevents his turning over, thereby ensuring his eventual 
death by starvation, as he cannot seize his prey except on 
his back. It seems wicked ; but a shark cares for nobody, 
and nobody cares for him. 

The work of trying out is carried on night and day, until 
completed, and, although it is somewhat hard and very dirty 
work, still we managed to get a little fun out of it. After 
" striking the oil below," the old man concluded to go in 
and get wood and water. So we went into a httle hole in 



266 ON MANY SEAS 

Ecuador. If it had any name, I never heard it, and all 
hands took axes and went ashore to chop wood. 

While here, George Davis deserted. He went ashore with 
us to cut wood, but didn't show up again to go aboard, al- 
though we scouted after him for some time. The old man 
was mad to think George carried off the axe with him ; but 
we all understood that. It was the rubber country, and 
there was lots of money to be made there if you didn't die 
of the fever ; for everything that was done to the rubber 
was paid for at astonishing rates, and, as the natives and 
niggers would only work about one day a week, any man 
who cared to work, and was able to, could make his fortune 
in short order. But George didn't go there to hire out as a 
labourer ; he went as a prospector to go up country on his 
own hook and get rubber, or, as the natives call it, caout- 
chouc. 



CHAPTER XXX 

Stealing Soldiers from Ecuador. — A Try for Fresh 
Beef. — Repulse of the Expedition. — The First Mate 
retires. 

The lot of the Gringo recruit is pretty nearly hopeless ; so 
it came to pass that the last day that we were taking water, 
two about as tough-looking specimens as I ever saw came 
down to the boat and begged to be taken off. They had 
been " sojering " for nearly a year and were homesick, and 
as a whaler is always in want of men, Mr. Silva told them to 
get into the boat. Whether they were seen or not, at any 
rare they were missed and the whaler was suspected. But 
the old man had stolen soldiers before, and knew how to 
hide them. There was always a cask of water kept lashed 
on its bed, right opposite the galley door, for the conven- 
ience of the cook, who had a bunghole pump to draw water 
with. As the old man had got two men for nothing, he 
didn't propose to lose them. 

The cook's cask was bunged up and rolled away, and an 
empty one put in its place. One head was taken out and 
one of the deserters crept in. A tub of water was shoved in 
after him, which he placed directly under the bunghole, and 
his partner then crawled in and the cask was headed up. 
Sure enough, before we could get under way, off came a 
dugout containing two negro officers, who climbed nimbly 
on deck and began to make a great clatter. 

267 



268 ON MANY SEAS 

I was called aft to interpret, and they told me in a very 
highfalutin manner that we had stolen two of the soldiers 
of La Republica de Ecuador, and must not leave port 
until they were surrendered, or there would be trouble. 
They would send a man-of-war after us and burn our ship. 

I translated, and the captain said, " You tell 'em that if 
they think I've got any of their Dago soldiers aboard here, 
they can search until I get my anchor, and then I'm going to 
leave town." I repeated this to the officers, and they were 
furious, but helpless. So they started on their search, and I 
was ordered to go with them to see that they didn't steal 
anything. I purposely took them away forward, and the 
cook came out of his galley with his water-pail and bung 
pump, stuck the pump down the bunghole of the cask, gave 
it a shake to charge it, pumped up a bucket of water, and 
disappeared in his hole again. Of course they never thought 
of looking there for their lost darlings. 

Then they wanted to go below. A ladder was put down 
the main hatch, and as I followed them down, Mr. Eastern, 
the mate, told me to keep them down there as long as I 
could, and he would give them a good long pull back to 
shore. So I got them away aft into the run and kept them 
interested until the unmistakable heeling of the bark warned 
even them that she was under way. And away they rushed 
to the main hatch, shouting and cursing and threatening, 
and lo ! the ladder had been hauled up. 

Then indeed there was the Old Harry to pay. They 
commanded me to have a ladder put down instantly, and I 
shouted all kinds of nonsense up the hatch with a grave 
face, and after a while Mr. Eastern poked his nose over the 
combings and wanted to know if the niggers had found 
their men yet. When I told them what he said, they 
hopped right up and down with rage. Finally the ladder 
was shoved down, and up we all went. They both rushed 



HUNTING FRESH MEAT 269 

up on the poop, gesticulating and shouting at the old man. 
We were five miles off-shore, and they demanded that he 
put back and land them under pain of their dire displeasure. 

The old man walked to the side and, pointing to the 
canoe, asked : " Is that your boat ? " 

" Si mi bote," said he who appeared to be in command 
of the expedition. 

"Wall, git into it and git aout;" and, putting his big, 
powerful hand in the back of the officer's neck, he tipped 
him over the low poop rail, and dumped him overboard. 
The other fellow stepped back in surprise and alarm, 
and, clapping his hand on his sword hilt, snarled out, 
" Car-r-r-r-r-ajo " ; but Mr. Eastern was behind him, and, 
clasping his arms round his waist, he hfted him, kicking, 
squirming, and cursing, clear of the rail and threw him after 
his partner. The canoe was cast adrift, and we saw them 
get into her before they were out of sight, and start pad- 
dling towards the land. 

We now returned to the Galapagos and went cruising 
again. It was a lazy, easy, pleasant life for a man that 
had no ambition ; and that's a quality that doesn't worry 
sailors much. With them it is " Come day, go day, and 
Lord send duff day." 

During an extra-strong set of current we lost sight of 
the Rock altogether, and came in view of another of the 
Galapagos that I had never seen before. It was a beautiful 
island, fertile as the Garden of Eden. Some years before, 
a stock company had rented it from the government of 
Ecuador and established a colony ; but for some reason it 
was not a success, and they cleared out. But they left 
several head of cattle behind them, and these had gone 
wild and increased, until the island was pretty well stocked 
with prime, grass-fed beeves. As the old Bahio slowly wore 
round on her heel close in-shore, we could sometimes catch 



270 ON MANY SEAS 

a glimpse of them. Fine, fat, sleek-looking fellows they 
were, and looked as if they might make a very pleasant 
diversion from our fresh fish diet, which was the only kind 
of fresh meat we had known for long months. 

Mr. Fisher at last persuaded the old man to let him go 
ashore and get some beef, and of course I managed to be 
of the party. We sailed ashore into a little cove fringed 
with bushes to shield us from the impertinent gaze of the 
cattle, and landed our forces in good order. Mr. Fisher 
was armed with the bomb-gun, a miniature cast-iron cannon 
with a stock like a shot-gun, but all of the same solid casting. 

It fires a cast-iron bomb about a foot long and an inch 
in diameter, filled with dynamite. The butt-end of the 
bomb is fitted with three sheet-rubber wings to make it 
go straight. In loading it into the gun these are wrapped 
around it, and make it fit tight in the barrel. There is a 
httle projecting trigger at the butt-end that catches on the 
blubber as it enters the whale, and fires the charge, stirring 
up the interior department in great shape. It has a three- 
cornered point, and the wings are set to give it a spinning 
motion. I should think it might be a very effective weapon ; 
but never saw one used on a whale, the old whalers pre- 
ferring to trust to the old-fashioned lance. 

The rest of us were armed with lances, axes, long sword- 
like blubber knives, and spades, and, as we stood there on, 
the beach in battle array, it looked pretty blue for the unfort- 
unate beef that should come our way. Our instructions 
were to follow Mr. Fisher in twos, in open order, through 
the bushes. He was to lead off with a broadside from the 
bomb-gun, and, in case he didn't kill the game outright and 
it should charge, the rest were to cause it to run the gaunt- 
let of our variegated but certainly effective armament ; and 
to deliver all manner of vicious jabs and thrusts as the 
doomed critters flew past us. 



HUNTING FRESH MEAT 2/1 

"Although," said Mr. Fisher, "probably there'll be no 
need of it; for if this old bomb-lance lands right, you'll 
have to pick up your beef and carry it aboard in pieces." 

So we took up our line of march as directed, and silently 
stole upon the unsuspecting game. The fringe of bushes 
that I spoke of before enclosed a beautiful pasture a mile 
or more across, and in this there were several small herds 
grazing, each under the care of a bull. As we approached 
the pasture, the bushes thinned out, and we could see them 
quite plainly. The wind was from them to us ; so we were 
able, by being very careful, to approach quite near the edge 
of the clearing without being seen. Mr. Fisher soon gave 
a back-handed sign for us to stop, and passing the signal 
along to the rear, we halted and drew up in two parallel 
lines, according to the orders, and I couldn't help thinking 
what a slim chance it would be for the luckless critter that 
should undertake to charge between our lines, so well armed 
we were, and with such deadly weapons. 

I was one of those next to our gallant leader, and could 
watch every move he made. There was a magnificent black 
bull grazing within ten yards of where he stood, and, facing 
him, I could see the thick curly hair on his forehead, that 
nearly covered his two fierce, twinkling, little eyes. He was 
very busy cropping the short grass, and looked neither to 
the right nor to the left. 

This, of course, was Mr. Fisher's meat, and I saw him 
carefully rest the bomb-gun on the branch of a httle tree, 
and I watched with hardly suppressed excitement as he 
" drawed a bead on him." Just as he was in the act of 
drawing the trigger, some jay in the rear sneezed. (Several 
of them said it was me, but they lied abominably.) The bull 
threw up his head and tail. He was the picture of alertness 
in an instant. Bang ! went the bomb-gun, with a report that 
waked the echoes all over the island, and the bomb sped 



2/2 ON MANY SEAS 

true ; for it was fired by a master, directly between his fore- 
feet, where his head had been but half a second before, 
then along under his belly, making the grass and dust fly 
like smoke, and exploding just in his rear. 

I'll bet that bull broke all previous high-jumping records 
on the island. Four good feet he went, straight up in the 
air, and landing in his tracks again he caught sight of Mr. 
Fisher's old blue jumper. Down went his head, and with a 
bellow, like an approaching avalanche he came for us. One 
quick glance, and we saw there was to be a gathering of the 
clans. From all parts of the big field they were coming, 
anxious to have some of the pie. 

Mr. Fisher dropped his bomb-gun and started towards 

the boat. As he passed me he yelled out " Run, ye d 

fool. What are ye stannin' there for? Don't ye see 'em 
comin'? " 

I had thought we were posted on purpose to receive them 
when they came. But he was my superior officer ; so I took 
the order in the spirit in which it was given, and ran. Oh ! 
how I ran ! There was a trampling of many hoofs, and a 
crashing of bushes, and a snorting and bellowing in my 
immediate rear, that cheered me on to do my best. I don't 
believe that a whole gallery full of the most beautiful ladies, 
waving their handkerchiefs and clapping their hands, could 
have enthused me any more than did the patter of those 
cloven hoofs in the rear. I threw away my offensive weapon, 
and so did the rest. I would have been glad if I could 
have dropped off my flesh and run in my bones, so ambi- 
tious was I to make a good second at the finish. Mr. 
Fisher was the first to reach the boat, and he piled in, heels 
over head, yelling frantically, before he was half in, " Shove 
her off"! " But nobody had any time. All were as anxious 
as he to get aboard ; and for once discipline was waived. 
The first on board seized oars, and began to shove off; so 



HUNTING FRESH MEAT 2/3 

that the last arrivals nearly had to swim for it. In the end 
we all got safely away and a couple of fathoms off-shore 
before the vanguard of our pursuers appeared on the beach. 

Then we could laugh at them, although a couple of min- 
utes before it was the last thing we should have thought of. 
We set sail and started for the bark, as dejected a lot of 
returning Nimrods as you would care to see. We had not 
only failed to get any beef, but had also left our arms in 
possession of the enemy, and we dreaded to meet our ship- 
mates, especially the old man. 

When we ran under her lee, he stood looking at us, and 
asked, " Whar's yer beef?" then, "Whar's yer bum gun?" 
and finally, seeing that we had been totally disarmed, how 
he did kick ! He didn't swear ; but he read the riot act 
to us rather forcibly, and said he would charge each one 
with the implement he had lost. However, as we were not 
likely ever to have any wages coming to us, that didn't 
bother us much ; for whalemen are paid in shares of the 
oil taken, and according to the luck the Bahio had been 
having, nobody would ever get a cent out of it. 

Shortly after this the mate, Mr. Eastern, had a needless 
quarrel with Silva, who was promoted to be mate, Fisher to 
be second mate, and the boat-steerer, who had been the 
innocent cause of the whole fracas, was made third, Mr. 
Eastern being set ashore at the first opportunity. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

Hunting Blackfish. — To Peru for Potatoes. — Billy 

AND I ASK for MoNEY AND LIBERTY. — We ARE JAILED 

FOR Mutiny. — One-armed Bill. 

We returned to the Galapagos again and cruised for a 
couple of months, but caught nothing but blackfish. This 
animal is, to all appearance, a miniature sperm-whale. He 
is shaped just like his big brother, and spouts like him, fre- 
quently deceiving the oldest whalers at a little distance. 
When blackfish come up, they are usually in large numbers, 
and we would put down one or two boats for them. Mr. 
Fisher used to let me — for I was boat-steerer now — fasten 
to five or six, one after the other ; and they would all travel 
off abreast like a rank of cavalry, coming up and blowing 
exactly together. Then if they were taking us towards the 
bark, he would cock one leg over the other, sing out, " Gee 
up, Dobbin," and let them tow us nearly alongside before 
he came forward and killed them, one at a time. It was 
great sport, but not very profitable. None of the other 
ships would bother with them at all. 

Our supply of sweet potatoes giving out about this time, 
the old man concluded to go in and get more before the 
scurvy should break out among us ; and, accordingly, once 
more we headed for the mainland. Payta, on the coast of 
Peru, was now an objective point ; and as this was a some- 
what civilized place, and we had now been on board the old 

274 



BILLY AND I MUTINY 2/5 

spouter for eleven months, I proposed that we all demand 
liberty and money on arrival. It was uphill work prosely- 
tizing among the Scrap Islanders. They were timid. Cap- 
tain Davis was a great man in Nantucket. They would Hke 
the liberty and money, but didn't want to give offence. 
Billy, of course, voted in the affirmative at once ; for we 
two had not the fear of Captain Davis's social prestige 
before us, and besides, he had about the same as kidnapped 
us, anyway. So we did missionary work among the faint- 
hearted brethren, and got them to agree to countenance our 
conspiracy, provided we did all the talking, which we were 
perfectly willing to do. So that by the time we arrived in 
Payta Bay we had them pretty well braced up. The Portu- 
guese and one Chileno in the crew were easily persuaded 
that they were being imposed upon, and readily consented 
to fall in line. 

When we got there, contrary to our expectations, we did 
not anchor. The old man went ashore ; and the bark 
stood off and on, with orders to be on hand at sunrise the 
following morning and get in the potatoes, and so off to 
cruise again. Thus we were confronted with a new compli- 
cation ; but that wasn't much to veterans like Billy and me. 
We called a council of war in the forecastle, as the bark was 
standing easily off-shore under her two topsails and foretop- 
mast staysail. We decided that it would be too late if we 
waited for the old man's return in the morning, as all he 
would have to do then would be to put his helm up and run 
off to the Galapagos with us. Now, therefore, was our time. 
So, cheering the faint-hearted with the prospect of a twenty- 
four hours' run on shore, we marched up the ladder, I at 
the head, Billy next, — little but guilty, — the rest taihng 
along behind. 

Mr. Silva stood on the lee rail, with a lance in his hands, 
trying to get a shot at some blackfish that were playing 



276 ON MANY SEAS 

around near the bark. I marched my cohorts up to him, 
and said, " Mr. Silva, we would like to speak to you a mo- 
ment, if you please." 

He glanced around in surprise to see us all drawn up 
there, and said, " Wal, what do ye want? " 

" If you'll come down off the rail, sir, so we can speak to 
you, we will tell you what we want," said I. 

He leaped lightly to the deck. He was as active as a cat, 
although nearly seventy years old. 

" Wal, what is it? " said he. 

" Mr. Silva," said I, " we have been out in this vessel, as 
you know, eleven months, without liberty. Billy and I here 
only shipped to go to Callao, and are entitled to our dis- 
charge. But all hands want a twenty-four hours' run on 
shore and a few dollars to spend. If we can have that, we 
are satisfied to stay and finish the cruise." 

" I've got nothing to do with that, boys," said he. " You'll 
have to see the captain." 

" Yes, sir," said I. " But by the time the captain comes 
aboard again it will be too late ; he won't listen to us." 

"I can't help that," said he. "You'll have to see him," 
and he turned to walk away. 

" Hold on a bit, Mr. Silva," said I. " I'm not done yet." 

" Wal, what else yer get ter say? " 

" I've got this to say : We don't propose to sail this bark 
on any more cruise until we get liberty and money. We 
will wear ship, take her back to Payta, and anchor her 
there ; but anything else you want done you'll have to do 
yourself." His black eyes shot fire, his gray moustache 
bristled up, and he raised the lance as he roared out, " You 
d d mutineers ! " 

" 'Old 'ard," said Billy, as he sprang in front of me and 
seized the lance. " That's murder ; and you can't kill us 
all at one thrust, either. We're all in this, and it's just as 



BILLY AND I MUTINY 2// 

Jimmy says. We'll take this bark back to Payta and 
nowhere else ; so be careful what you do." 

The old fellow lowered his hand, and giving us a look that 
might have scared a school of porpoises out of water, walked 
aft to consult with the other officers, while we congregated 
about the windlass forward, and watched them. 

The die was cast. The gauntlet had been thrown down 
to the afterguards, and every passing moment now was big 
with possibilities. They might give us a tussle for it. We 
hoped not ; but if they did, we were bound to see it through. 

In about ten minutes, old Silva turned round our way, 
and bawled out, " Wear ship ! " 

That settled it. We had won the first heat, anyway. We 
wore her round and went back into Payta with the police 
flag flying. We stood well into the bay, and laid the main 
topsail to the mast. Soon we saw a boat coming off, which 
proved to be the old man. He came aboard, and Mr. Silva 
told his story. 

The old man ordered Billy and me put in irons, with our 
hands behind us, and lowered down the main hatch until he 
went ashore again. Accordingly this was done, and we were 
lowered down the main hatch by a rope, like a couple of 
sacks of potatoes. Being young and nimble, we both soon 
had our hands before us, and we then held consultation. 
We concluded that he was going to take us to sea in irons, 
and that probably our diet would consist of the far-famed 
bread and water. So, as the crew's dinner had just been 
carried into the forecastle before the old man came aft, and 
we could now hear all hands on deck wearing ship, we con- 
cluded it would be a good time to lay in some provisions ; 
and we crawled over the oil casks forward, and soon ripped 
off a board in the forecastle bulkhead ; and Billy, being the 
smaller, crept in and passed me out the two big duffs 
and the two chunks of beef that constituted the crew's 



2/8 ON MANY SEAS 

dinner. These we hid away among the casks, — I wonder 
if they ever found them, — and then, being provisioned for 
an emergency, Billy remarked sententiously, " Now let them 
do their damnedest." 

The bark made a short tack off, and, standing in again, 
picked up the old man's boat, containing the consul and a 
file of native soldiers, half Indian, half nigger, and half 
Spanish, — a barefooted, ignorant lot of cholos that knew 
almost half as much as the burros they had driven for a 
living before they enlisted. These the consul had brought 
along as a bodyguard or boarding party, or forlorn hope, to 
quell the mutiny — Billy and me. 

The old man arrived first (the consul's soldiers had so 
many crabs to catch that they arrived later on), and ordered 
the prisoners brought on deck. So a boat-steerer came 
below and bent a rope's end on to us one after the other, 
and we were bowsed up the hatchway again. We were 
ordered to range ourselves in the starboard gangway, and 
the rest of the crew fell in alongside of us, the only Chileno 
in the crew next to Billy. By a mutual understanding all 
around, the post of honour fell to me. The consul, a young 
man with an empty sleeve, indicating that for services to his 
country during the recent unpleasantness he had been re- 
warded by being deported to this outlandish strip of sand 
and fleas, having drifted alongside in spite of his military 
crew, now came over the gangway. He stumbled slightly, 
and a bright new revolver flew out of his inside coat-pocket 
and clattered along the deck. If this was done for effect, 
it was a success ; for, as I glanced down the line, I could 
see that the other mutineers weakened visibly. They evi- 
dently thought they were all to be shot at once. 

"Thar," said the old man, pointing to me, " thar's the 
ringleader, and the next one hain't no better. Naow, 
caounsel, I want ye ter jist see what them two fellers has 



BILLY AND I MUTINY 2/9 

done ter my crew. I got a good crew, but they corrupted 
'em." 

Then, stepping up to the last man in the line, he said : 
" Naow, Rawley Eastern, hain't yer ashamed of yerself ? 
What'll yer folks say, I wonder, when I go home and tell 
'em that I had ter put ye in jail for mutiny aout in South 
Ameriky. What yer got ter say for yerself, hey? Be ye 
goin' ter go tu jail jist 'cos them two Valperaiser beach- 
combers does?" 

Rawley looked sheepish, but mustered courage to remark 
that he'd " kinder like ter have a little liberty." 

"Liberty!" said the old man, with a scornful accent. 
" Do I git any liberty ? or do ye hear the officers of this 
vessel askin' for liberty ? Who be ye, I sh'd like ter know, 
ter be askin' for liberty before the officers does ? Naow I 
want ye ter decide right off whether yer goin' ter jail or 
goin' abaout yer duty." 

" Wal, I don't wanter go ter jail," said Rawley. 

"Wal, then," said the old man, "if I overlook this mis- 
behavier on your part, do ye think ye can go ter yer duty, and 
behave yerself, and be a good boy for the rest of the voyage ? " 

"Yes, sir, I think I kin," said Rawley. 

" Wal, then, git over on the other side of the deck there." 
And Rawley left the disreputable crowd and passed over 
to the side of the good boys. Now that the ice was broken, 
the rest were only too glad to pass over to the good side, 
until there were only Billy and me and the Chileno left. 
The Chileno, through me as interpreter, expressed his deter- 
mination to go wherever Billy and I went. 

Then Billy and I stated our grievance to the consul, and 
he, turning to the captain, said : " I'll take these two fellows 
ashore. You don't want them, anyway ; and, as for that 
Chileno, send him to his duty and make him do it. Get 
m the boat there, you two fellows." 



28o ON MANY SEAS 

" I won't get in the boat with irons on," said I ; and 
Billy echoed the sentiment. 

" Oh, yes, that's so, captain ; have those men released 
from their irons, please," said the consul ; and, the irons 
having been removed and our dunnage brought up, we 
entered the boat and bade good-bye to the whaling industry 
forever. 

The consul's soldier crew accidentally got us ashore, and 
we were marched with all the pomp and circumstance of 
glorious war to the calaboose. Our escort were as proud 
of their prisoners as though they had been the spoils of a 
charge through the valley of the shadow of death. The 
jail, a simple bamboo affair, was situated on and formed 
one side of the public square or plaza, and Billy, being a 
European, nicknamed it the Place de la Bastille. The 
calaboose was a one-roomed affair about twelve feet square, 
with one window near the door. A sentinel was kept at 
the door while we were there, and we spent about all our 
time looking out of the window, an unglazed opening crossed 
with four iron bars. As we had not had any dinner, I asked 
the sentry to get me something to eat. But he said we were 
prisoners of the American consul, and must look to him 
for our meals. Nevertheless, he sent a boy to the bar- 
racks and procured us a messenger to the consul. We 
didn't get anything to eat, though, until the next morn- 
ing ; and if you have any idea of what good feeders sail- 
ors are, you can realize that we passed an awfully hungry 
day and night. We had to sleep on the bare ground, as 
there were no sleeping accommodations of any kind. The 
weather was fearfully hot, and there was no ventilation ex- 
cept by the window. Added to this, the sanitary condition 
of the prison was simply unspeakable. 

The next morning at eight o'clock we got our break- 
fasts and, in spite of our surroundings, ate heartily. The 



BILLY AND I MUTINY 28 1 

grub was good, consisting principally of a stew which both- 
ered Billy somewhat on account of the liberality with which 
it had been seasoned with Chile peppers. But I had long 
since been used to that, and he had to follow suit. The day 
passed slowly and wearily. There were few people passing 
in the plaza until the cool of the evening, so we sat and 
sweltered and looked out of our little window. At length 
Billy remarked that we were bloody fools to stay in such 
a place. This led us to consider the chances of breaking 
jail. From the slack manner in which the day sentry 
guarded us, we assumed that the night relief would not 
keep much watch at all ; and we laid our plans on that 
basis. 

That night we sat up and watched him, and, sure enough, 
before nine o'clock he was stretched out in front of our 
door, snoring like a seal. There was a stout bamboo set 
diagonally across the corner of the room, with both ends 
framed into the wall. I, being the biggest, and presumably 
the strongest, got down and put my back under the stick so 
that I had all the purchase of my muscles. I slowly straight- 
ened myself, and was surprised to find how easily the whole 
shebang rose up off the ground. When high enough, Billy 
shoved a tub under to hold it up, and we crawled out. 
After we got two or three whiffs of fresh air, Billy turned to 
me and said : " What bloody chumps we were to stay in that 
bloody 'ole all last night." 

We made up our minds to go northward to the next sea- 
port, whatever that might be, and started accordingly. It 
was early in the evening yet, the wine-shops were open, and 
we could hear the natives carousing in them ; but we had no 
money and could take no part in the fun. What was our 
surprise on turning the corner to hear the words of an 
American song, roared out lustily in good United States, 
from a saloon just ahead. All I can remember of it is that 



282 ON MANY SEAS 

the chorus was something about Burnside and the coloured 
volunteers. We determined to go in, as there must be 
friends there. So in we went and found a lot of natives, 
black, white, and all the varying shades between, seated at 
tables, drinking and enjoying the song which was being 
sung by a strapping big nigger. When he had finished his 
chorus, I sang out, " Ship ahoy ! " " Hullo," answered the 
singer, and whirling round he saw us for the first time, and 
asked in Spanish who we were and where we came from. 

Not caring to let the rest know our business, I told him 
in English, when, to my surprise, he got up and beckoned 
me outside. He then asked me if I could speak Castel- 
lano ; and on my answering in the affirmative, he told me 
he had been for three months once on board of a Ballenero 
Americano (American whaler), and had learnt the song I 
heard him singing, but that was all the English he knew, 
and on the strength of that he had built himself a reputa- 
tion among his fellows of being a great English scholar, 
although he could only sing one verse and the chorus. I 
was surprised ; for his accent was splendid, and I certainly 
thought it was a New York or Philadelphia darky that I 
heard singing. 

I now told him who we were, but did not tell him we 
were fugitives from justice, and we struck a bargain at once. 
He was to entertain Billy and me during the evening, and 
we were to boost his reputation as a linguist. So on re- 
turning, he introduced us to two of his shipmates on the 
ballenero, and we sat down and joined the company. 

As the evening wore on and the wine cup circulated, I 
declared to the assembled company that Juanito could 
speak better English than my shipmate and myself put 
together ; and Juanito swore eternal friendship. Billy said 
nothing, but took his grog like what he was, a thorough 
British tar. The time eventually arrived when the pro- 



BILLY AND I MUTINY 283 

prietor insisted on closing, and heartlessly refused to serve 
"just one more," and we found ourselves in the open air 
again. After many maudlin reiterations of regard, Billy 
and I were once more alone in the wide, wide world. The 
first thing we knew, we were on the little wharf where we 
had landed the day before, and so we sat down on a couple 
of old spars that were there, to think. In a few minutes 
more, as it seemed to me, I realized that somebody was 
shaking me by the shoulder and calling me to get up. I 
opened my eyes with an indefinite idea that it was eight 
bells, and my wheel, to find the day breaking in the east, 
and a short, burly, one-armed man with a red nose and a 
bushy red beard calling me in English, with a strong Scotch 
accent, to " get up and get back where ye kern from, before 
they find ye're oot." 

Explanations followed of course, and I found out that he 
was One-armed Bill. He came to Payta twelve years 
before that, as mate of an American vessel ; came ashore 
to celebrate the Fourth of July, and shot himself in the arm 
so badly that he had to have it amputated, and his ship 
went off" and left him in hospital ; and he had been beach- 
combing in Payta ever since, drinking aguardiente, and 
sleeping on the wharf. During those twelve years, not a 
drop of rain had fallen, unless it was when Bill was so drunk 
he didn't know anything about it. I can hardly conceive of 
such a condition of things ; for Bill was copper-plated in- 
wardly, if anybody ever was. He explained that, as water 
was a rare commodity in Payta, the entire supply being 
brought in Httle kegs, on donkeys' backs, across a sandy 
desert thirty-five miles wide, and as they had to depend 
entirely on chance for that, no one being regularly engaged 
in the traffic, he did not think it would be right for him, 
who subsisted entirely on the charity of the community, to 
consume any portion of the precious fluid. Consequently, 



284 ON MANY SEAS 

he restricted himself to aguardiente entirely. Bill said he 
knew of our arrival in town, and apologized for not having 
sent his card up to our hotel. He said we were not the 
first, by any means, to leave the jail in that manner. In 
fact, it was expected that prisoners would enjoy themselves, 
within reasonable bounds. He advised us not to leave 
Payta, as it was the best place in the whole coast ; but to 
return to our apartment, so as not to get the sentry into 
trouble. He would wake presently, and be disturbed to 
find us not yet returned. He also promised to call, during 
the day, with cigars, — if he could get any, — and to become 
our friend, counsellor, and guide on our release, which he 
assured us would be speedy. So, with Bill for our pilot, we 
returned, and, crawling again into limbo, dropped the corner 
of our mansion back to mother earth, and wearily fell asleep. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

Released by the Consul. — George Davis again. — A 
West-coast Desperado. — Across the Isthmus. 

Nearly a week had passed in this manner, carousing 
nights in company with One-arraed Bill and his friends, who 
were legion, and sleeping the greater part of the day, when 
one afternoon I was awakened by Billy calling excitedly : 

'• Jimmy, Jimmy, come 'ere quick ! " 

He was looking out of the window, and asked me if that 
wasn't George. 

I looked, and answered : " It certainly is. Hey, George ! 
George Davis ! " He was on the opposite side of the plaza, 
and looked all around in wonder to hear his name called. 
I hailed him again ; and he came directly over to us, and, 
seeing us looking through the bars, he sung out : 

" HuUy Gee ! How did yes fellers git in there? Have 
yes got anything ter eat?" 

Yes, we told him, lots of it ; and handed him out a big 
chunk of bread and jerked beef. Although he appeared to 
be famished, he didn't offer to eat it, but stood and talked 
a few minutes, and then said he must go down to the beach 
and have a bath. He was the neatest man I ever saw. 
I have known him to be in terribly destitute circumstances, 
but never saw him without a razor and a piece of soap. 
He was always cleanly shaved, and was for ever washing and 
scrubbing himself. 

285 



286 ON MANY SEAS 

He walked off through the plaza with the bread and meat 
openly in his hand, although there were now plenty of people 
about. And when I told him afterwards that I should have 
thought he would have put it out of sight somewhere, he 
said : " Gripes ! what would have been the use ? They all 
seen me cadging it from a couple of jail-birds, didn't they? " 

George was a man that nobody ever took to very much, 
and he didn't care whether they did or not. He was suffi- 
cient unto himself, and went his own way. Although he and 
I and Billy shipped in the whaler together in Valparaiso, and 
were the only merchant seamen in her, he never hinted to us 
that he was going to run away, but went off entirely alone in 
the tropical forest with his axe, to seek his fortune. So we 
were not surprised that he didn't come back again, although 
he had promised to do so. But he said afterwards that he 
didn't care to be seen fraternizing with the inmates of the 
common jail. 

A day or two after this a messenger came down from the 
consul's office, and took us up there. The consul received 
us kindly, and asked if we had enjoyed ourselves. We told 
him we had made out pretty fair. He said he didn't sup- 
pose it was worth while to keep us shut up any longer, as we 
were not so very much to blame anyway. He told us he 
would furnish us a boarding-house, and lend us papers to 
read if we wanted them. He said of course he expected us 
to ship as soon as we could, and make over our advance 
wages to him, to enable him to partly reimburse the United 
States government for the expense he had incurred on our 
behalf. 

We now took things easy for weeks and weeks, eating in 
the boarding-house, and sleeping on the dock with Old Bill 
and George Davis. 

One day there came into Payta the largest coasting 
schooner I had yet seen. She was about sixty tons' bur- 



NICOLO 287 

then, painted green, and only lower masts in her. The 
captain, a swarthy, piratical-looking fellow, came ashore, 
and seeing us three whalers loafing on the Mole, said to us 
in English : 

" Wot you fellers doin' 'ere ; wy don you sheep and go 
ter sea?" 

We told him there was no ship to go in. 

"Wy, dere's my schooner; wat better sheep you wan as 
dat?" 

" All right," said we ; " do you want any hands ? " 

" Yes, certainly ; I wan tree jes sush feller like you. I 
give you sixteen dollar de mon, and a mon's avance. I guess 
dat's all right, ain't it ? " 

" Why, sure." 

It was more than right. So we all three adjourned to the 
store and signed an agreement to sail with Nicolo in his 
schooner, the Saiita Maria, anywhere that he wanted to go 
to, for sixteen dollars a month, one month's pay in advance. 
The agreement was on a piece of brown wrapping-paper, 
that Nicolo folded up and put in his pocket; and he then 
counted out forty-eight great big Peruvian silver " soles." 
Heavens, what wealth ! 

Having wound up our affairs in Payta, we boarded the 
schooner, and that evening set sail for a little bay a few 
miles to the southward, where we went to get a load of salt ; 
but on arriving in the bay, we found that there was too much 
surf running to bring it off; so we put in the time catching; 
and salting mackerel, on the understanding with Nicolo- that 
we were to divide the proceeds with him. 

Nicolo knew absolutely nothing of navigation ; but he had 
the whole coast by heart, and sailed from headland to headland 
perfectly happy and contented. Hjs was a densely ignorant 
man as far as education was concerned, but had an abiding 
faith in himself. He flew the Austrian flag on bi!= ^-^^cjoner, 



288 ON MANY SEAS 

with a small green patch in the lower corner, and pointing 
to that patch one day, he said : " You see dat pash ? Dat's 
all de dam Austriaco he give me for represent my contree." 

One night while I was at the wheel, he told me his his- 
tory. He landed in Panama when he was a boy sixteen 
years of age, and obtained employment in the lighters of 
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company ; for Panama is 
situated on a large shallow bay, and all freight has to be 
lightered to and from the ships. He worked for the com- 
pany sixteen years, becoming in due time captain of a lighter. 
The Isthmus in those days was an exceedingly turbulent 
territory, and when a revolution was on, mob law prevailed, 
and property of all kinds was stolen or destroyed with per- 
fect impartiality. 

During his sixteen years' service, Nicolo had gained the 
confidence of his superiors to such a degree that, on the 
breaking out of one of the usual revolutions, he was chosen 
to take charge of a lighter containing a large and valuable 
consignment of silver bullion, and his orders were to get it 
out of Panama as quickly as possible, and take it up the 
coast to a little port called Chiriqui, and deliver it to the 
first north-bound steamer that should arrive there. He had 
two negroes for a crew, and left Panama that night. Towards 
iBorning Nicolo relieved the man who was steering, and told 
him he might lie down ; and when he was satisfied that they 
were both sound asleep, he knocked them on the head, cut 
their throats, and threw their bodies overboard. Then he 
ran the lighter in near the beach, scuttled her, and swam 
ashore. He tramped back to Panama, arriving there all 
ragged and scf?tched, and reported that a big steamer had 
run him down andTefused to stop to pick any of them up, 
and his crew had both dfowned. He himself, being a famous 
swimmer, had managed to reach- shore, and that was all. 
He reiuiixv-J t.o work for the c-ompany and stayed with them 



NICOLO 



289 



five years longer, and then, taking a holiday, he went to 
Malme and raised a little of the treasure, and a month 
afterwards bought a little old sloop, paying only part of the 
price down, and saying it was all that he had been able to 
save out of his wages. 

He sailed the old sloop for a year, occasionally visiting 
his cache, and then traded her off for a schooner. This, 
in time, he finally traded for the one we were now in, the 
largest and finest vessel in the coasting trade. 
■ "You tink," said he, "I make money wid dis schooner? 
No ; I no care for what leedle money I make here, but I 
mus git reesh slow, don you see?" I told him I shouldn't 
think he would talk about it. How did he know but I 
might go and give him away in Panama? He laughed and 
said he was too well and favourably known in Panama for 
any one to believe such a yarn about him, and warned me 
that if I tried such a game as that, he had lots of friends 
who would not give him the chance to shoot me, as they 
would do it for him, and advised me if I had any doubts 
about it to try it on when we got there. ■ 

We put into a little port called Esmeralda, and here 
Nicolo sold some of his salt and nearly all the mackerel 
for ten cents apiece, the negroes almost falling over each 
other in their eagerness to get them. 

We stayed here over Sunday, and George and Billy and I 
shaved and washed up in expectation of getting liberty, and 
some money to spend. Old Nick, as he called hitnself, was 
sitting under the awning aft, smoking his pipe and doing 
rifle practice on the sea birds. 

It was agreed among us that I should go and brace him; 
so I went aft and respectfully notified Captain Nicolo that 
we would be glad to have a few dollars. 

"Wat," said he, "money? Didn't I give you a month's 
advance in Payta?" 
u 



V 



2gO ON MANY SEAS 

" Yes," said I, " but what about the fish money you prom- 
ised us?" 

" I no promise nothin' and I no givee nothin' ; you can 
go to h ," said he, and his eyes snapped viciously. 

I went forward again and reported, and after a short con- 
fab we determined not to submit to any of his dago tricks. 
So aft we went in a body, we three. He saw us coming, 
and we saw him sHp an empty shell out of his breech-loader, 
and shove in a cartridge. 

We gathered pretty close round him, and George acted 
as spokesman. Nick listened till he had finished, and then 
said : 

" I sheep you for seestin dollar de mont. I geevy you 
one mont avance. You no worka dat up yit. I sheep you 
for work. Wen I want you for feesh, you gotter feesh. 
Dats de kine er work I want you for. ... I don't givee 

you a d cent. Go forward or I shoot de d head 

offer de whole lot o' ye " ; and he picked his rifle up off the 
skyhght as he said it. 

George grabbed the muzzle, and Billy and I drawing our 
sheath-knives, stepped, one to each side of him. 

" None o' that, Nick, we're no Panama niggers," said 
George. ' 

Nick burst into a loud, mirthless guffaw, and said, " Wy 
certainly, fellers, I goin' givee you money. Did'n I tell you 
I would wen we wuz feeshin'. I go down in de cabin an' 
git him for you now." 

"Better leave your gun up 'ere," said Billy, "you don't 
need that in the cabin. It might go off while you are 'unt- 
ing for the money, and kill some of us through the skyhght." 

" No fear ; I know how for handle a gun." 

" Yes, you know too well. Leave the gun here, we'll take 
care of it fOr yon," said George. 

So, being over-persuaded, he laid the gun down again, 



NICOLO 29 1 

after drawing the charge, and went down and brought us up 
five dollars apiece, requesting us to be back in time to get 
under way in the morning. 

Six dollars was all that was coming to us when we landed 
in Panama, so we stayed in town that night, and the next 
morning, with all our worldly possessions slung on our 
backs, we bade good-bye to George, and turned our backs on 
the Pacific coast, its black-eyed senoritas, beach-combers, 
and cheap rum, and started bright and early to count the 
ties on the railroad to Aspinwall. 

We each had a canvas clothes-bag with what few traps 
we owned strapped across our backs, and our sea-boots hung 
about our necks, a bottle of water in one, and a bottle of 
rum in the other ; for we had been warned by a friendly 
Jamaica darky that water on the Isthmus was scarce and 
bad, and that if w^e drank any of it without a dash of spirits 
in it, we were goners. So we looked out for that part of it. 

It is forty-eight miles across the Isthmus, and we heard 
that it had often been done in one day, but Billy and I made 
a three days' walk of it ; for we were in no hurry, and the 
weather was terribly hot. 

Sometimes we would hear a locomotive whistle and would 
step out of the way to let a train of flat cars go by, the 
nigger brakemen sitting comfortably on their brakes, and 
their broad straw hats flapping coolly in the breeze caused 
by the motion of the train, and Billy, wiping the beaded 
perspiration from his brow, would say : " It's a mighty tough 
country, Jimmy, where white men hoof it and niggers ride." 
And so it was tough enough ; but then, we were quite as 
tough as the country. Tramps like us were so numerous 
that engineers were prohibited under heavy penalties from 
carrying them even in empty trains ; but stations were only 
four miles apart, and we were so well treated that I remem- 
ber the Isthmus as a tramp's paradise. 



292 ON MANY SEAS 

When we got half-way across, we came to a turnout 
where the trains all passed each other, and found the three 
trains from Panama in the siding waiting for the arrival of 
the Aspinwall trains, and a big high iron bridge over the 
Chagres River right in front of us. 

The bridge was, I should think, at least seventy feet high 
above the river, and though we were sailors, we were not 
used to that kind of business, and it was pretty " scary " 
work. I told Billy that I would go ahead and, said I, 
"Don't look anywhere, Billy, only right at my heels, and try 
to step on them " ; for the ties were a long way apart on the 
bridge. Billy looked dubiously at the bridge, and said he 
wished he was across it. 

"Never mind, Billy," said I ; "we're cheating the Horn." 

"Ay," said Billy, "that's so; go ahead." When we got 
about half-way across, we heard the whistle of a train com- 
ing from Aspinwall. 

Without looking round, — I didn't dare to take my eye off 
the next tie, — I told Billy to stop at the next low place in 
the rail, and work his way out over the girder to it. 

" 'Oly Moses, Jimmy, I can't," said he. 

"You've got to," said I, "and be almighty careful you 
don't fall overboard; and sing out when you get stopped, 
so I can take the next one." In a moment he sung out. 
And I shut my teeth hard, as, by a desperate effort, I man- 
aged to step with both feet on one tie. Then I carefully 
turned myself half round and slowly, with my hair rising on 
my head, worked my way along the dizzy girder, and franti- 
cally clutched the notch in the rail as the train thundered 
by me, scaring me almost to death with the vibration and 
the wind it made. 

When it got by, I looked for Billy. He was clutching the 
next notch for dear Ufe. His face was as white as the pro- 
verbial sheet, and his eyes as big as two silver dollars. 



NICOLO 293 

" How ye making out, Billy?" 

"All right, Jimmy; I've a good mind to 'eave this bloody 
clothes-bag overboard ; it makes me top 'eavy." 

" Don't ye do it ; hang on ter ye dunnage. Ye don't 
know when ye'll ever git any more." 

"That's so; but I'm jiggered if I'll pull out o' this till 
every bloody train's passed both ways, and we 'ave a clear 
track over this bloody bridge." 

" Never mind, Billy ; we're cheating the Horn, anyway." 

" That's so ; but I wish I was off the bloody 'Orn now, 
in the worst bloody gale as hever blowed." 

So we hung on and waited for the trains, until we came 
to the conclusion there were no more coming from Aspinwall 
that day ; and at last Billy agreed to let go his hold and try 
for the other side once more ; but we had hardly got strad- 
dled out on the ties when we heard the whistle of the last 
train, and back we scurried as fast as we could, — which 
wasn't very fast, — and there we stayed until everything had 
passed. And when at last we set foot on the sacred soil of 
Columbia, Billy looked back and said, he'd " rather double 
forty bloody 'orns than cross that bloody bridge again," and 
I don't know but that I agreed with him just then; for it 
was a " corker " and no mistake. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

Colon. — Uncle Sam's Consul. — Jailed again. — The 

virginius. 

We arrived in Colon, or Aspinwall, without any further 
mishaps, and determined to ship and get away from the 
place as soon as we could. So after sleeping on a pile of 
timber on one of the docks, we started out early in the 
morning to look for a ship. There were always several 
vessels in port at that time, laden with coal for the railroad, 
and we had the good luck to board a three-masted Yankee 
schooner that was about to sail, and wanted a couple of 
hands. The captain said we could come right aboard and 
go to work. 

We were overjoyed at our good luck. She was bound 
to Boston, and it would seem so good to me once more to 
see the broadside of America, after so many years among 
the Dagos on the west coast. We started work just about 
eleven o'clock, in good time to get our dinners, which was 
no small object to us; but the Yankee first and the German 
second mate got into a fight over the proper way to make 
up a flying jib, and we were haled before the consul, and 
locked up as witnesses. This was the worst jail I ever got 
into. We were all, the cook, second mate, and four sea- 
men, put into one little cell that hardly afforded standing 
room. The only lighting or ventilating aperture was the 
grated door that looked out upon a sort of hallway, the 

294 



COLON 295 

opposite of which was occupied by cells similar to our own, 
and apparently all well filled. This was a veritable " stone 
jug," and could neither be upset nor raised off the ground, 
so we had to stay in it. All we got to eat was one green 
boiled, or rather half-boiled, plantain, and a piece of half- 
boiled salt cod, twice a day. The fish was as salt as 
Turk's Island ; but we, being famished, ate it, and then 
nearly died of thirst all the rest of the day ; for water, 
being an expensive commodity, of course was not lavished 
on us. 

We put in ten days of this kind of amusement, and then 
the captain and the consul came to the jail and asked all 
hands, one after another, if they were ready to go aboard and 
do their duty. As nobody had at any time "refused duty," 
or done anything else out of the way, except the second 
mate, and we were heartily sick of our present quarters, we 
all agreed. So they let us out, and with the captain and 
the consul at our head, we marched down to the dock, 
where the schooner's boat lay in charge of the mate. As 
the men were getting into her, the captain, looking at Billy 
and me, said, " Caounsel, I don't think I'll take those two 
fellows. I picked them up here, and I suspect they are at 
the bottom of this whole thing." 

"Which two, captain?" 

He pointed us out, and the consul said : " Well, I should 
say not. How fortunate that you pointed them out ! I hadn't 
noticed them ; they are the two worst cases on the Isthmus. 
I've had them in jail half a dozen times already." 

"What," said I, "you've had us in jail? I guess you're 
mistaken, consul. We hadn't been twenty-four hours in 
the place when the captain agreed to ship us for the 
passage home." 

" Shut up, sir. If you give me any more of your insolence, 
I'll lock you up again." 



296 ON MANY SEAS 

"You won't lock me up," said Billy. "I'm a British 
subject, and I'll appeal to the British consul." 

"Appeal, sir, and be d — d. I took you out of an x'^meri- 
can vessel, and you have forfeited your right as a British 
subject." 

"You're a bloody liar; I 'aven't," said Billy. By this 
time the boat was shoving off. The captain bade the con- 
sul good-bye, and he, stroking his beard with both hands 
and bowing almost to the ground, said, " Good-bye, captain ; 
may )'ou have a pleasant voyage, captain. I respect you, 
captain ; good-bye, sir." 

And then, turning, he straightened up as stiff as if he had 
swallowed a ramrod, and stalked by us without looking our 
way at all. I ran after him, and ranging alongside, I said : 
" Consul, I am an American citizen. You took me out of 
an American vessel that I could have gone home in, and 
now I am destitute, you'll have to provide for me and get 
me a ship." He gave me a magnificent wave of his hand 
and said : " You claimed just now to be a British subject ; go 
and appeal to the British consul. I'll have no more to do 
with you." 

After knocking about Aspinwall for a few days, Billy went 
to the British consul and sang his httle song, and was given 
a chance to work his passage home on an English steamer 
bound for Liverpool by way of some of the West India 
Islands ; so I bade him good-bye, and never saw him again. 

One of my chance acquaintances, a disreputable old 
Irishman, who called himself the " bumadier general," and 
declared he was too strong to work, took me out to 
Fox River, where a Cuban blockade runner, called the 
Virginius, lay half her length up in the bushes. She had a 
couple of lines out ahead merely as a matter of form, and 
a long plank over the bows. She had been chased into 
Aspinwall by a Spanish man-of-war, and came in with her 



COLON 297 

fire-room half full of water, from a hole knocked in her 
bow by the peak of her own anchor ; and to keep her from 
sinking her captain ran her at full speed up into the bushes 
on the bank of Fox River, and she was now being over- 
hauled and refitted. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

A Narrow Escape. — The Midas. — A Short and Nasty 
Voyage. — South Carolina Justices. — For Liverpool 
again. 

I SHIPPED in the Virginius, but one Sunday, when ashore, 
I saw a Bath bark, called the Midas, lying at the coal dock. 
She was rather a neat little bark, and, as I stood looking her 
over, the cook came out of the galley with a pan of hot 
biscuit, and set them on the water-cask to cool a bit, while 
he went aft. 'Twas years and years since I had eaten a hot 
biscuit, and I determined to have that whole panful, or die 
in the attempt. There wasn't a soul to be seen anywhere, 
and I leaped lightly down on deck and was about to pick 
up the pan, when who should come round the corner of the 
deck-house but Mr. Oliver, who was second mate of the old 
Tanjo7-e, in which I left home when a boy. 

I spoke to him, and he remembered me at once. He was 
mate of the bark, and promised to intercede with the cap- 
tain to take me home. I felt so sure of going in her that I 
didn't go back to the Virginius at all ; and it was just as 
well I didn't ; for the following night she sailed, was capt- 
ured, and all hands were shot in the public square in 
Havana. 

The captain of the Midas agreed to take me, and I 
went to work at once helping discharge the cargo of coal. 
Then we took in ballast, and sailed for Bull River, South 



SAWIN' 'EM OFF 299 

Carolina ; but not until the consul had recognized me, and 
repeated his pleasant little formula to the captain, who, 
however, paid not the slightest attention to him. 

The wind always blows right into the bay at Aspinwall, 
so it is a dead beat to get out. In order to secure all the 
advantage possible, we got our anchor up the night before 
sailing, and hauled into the lee side of a long wharf near the 
mouth of the bay, and made her fast with slip-hnes. 

Next morning we set every stitch of sail, and let go the 
slip-lines, and away she went on the first tack. 

It was only a few weeks' sail to Bull River ; and, when we 
got there, I thought surely we had arrived at the last place 
that was ever made. There was nothing in sight but a 
muddy river, flowing sluggishly through flat banks of mud, 
partly covered by bulrushes. The sand-flies I believe would 
eat the paint off an iron ship. They were so thick that we 
breathed them, and bite ! O Lord, I can feel them yet ! 
Two hands were not enough to slap one's self with. It 
seemed that we must all go crazy. 

In the morning a scow came alongside, and we were 
ordered to turn to and discharge the ballast, which we 
promptly declined to do, claiming that our voyage had ex- 
pired on arrival at a United States port. This the old man 
denied, as the articles read: "and back to a port of final 
discharge in the United States." He claimed that Bull 
River was not a " port of final discharge." However, we 
knew what his little game was. The bark was chartered to 
take a cargo of phosphate from there to Liverpool. All the 
crew but myself had been in her since she left New York, 
and had some pay due them. By the time they got to 
Liverpool they would have some more, and he would then 
run us out ; that is, starve, overwork, and otherwise ill-treat 
us until we couldn't stand it any longer, and would desert, 
leaving our pay behind us, which would be quite a plum for 



300 ON MANY SEAS 

him. But we were all old birds, and not to be caught with 
chaff; so we steadfastly refused to do another tap, and de- 
manded our money. For answer, he ordered Mr. Ohver to 
bring out the irons. 

We protested it was brutal to iron men among such a pest 
of stinging insects. " I can't help it," he said ; " if you will 
refuse duty, it's your own fault. Go to work if you don't 
want to be ironed." 

Such is the force of discipline that we six great sturdy 
men, any one of whom could have taken him and his mate 
and knocked their heads together, allowed them to iron our 
hands behind our backs. And then we went down in the 
'tween-decks and stood close to each other, continually rub- 
bing our faces on each other's shoulders to get a little relief 
from the intolerable itching due to the bites of the sand- 
flies. Another young fellow and I succeeded in getting our 
hands before us, and, after a while, took each other, and 
then the rest, out of irons by means of a piece of common 
sail twine. We were kept in this condition for three days. 
Then he had us up on deck, one at a time, and urged us to 
go to work, and not stay down there to be eaten alive by 
sand-flies. We declined. When it came to my turn, he 
said : 

"You want to be paid off, hey? " 

"Yes, sir." 

" All right. I'll pay you off, but how will you get ashore? 
As soon as you are paid, you don't belong to this vessel, 
and I want you to get right out of her." 

I told him I would go in the Pilot Boy, a small steamer 
that plied from Charleston around through the bayous. 

"The Pilot Boy ain't due here till to-morrow," said he, 
" and I won't have you aboard here a minute after you're 
paid off"." 

I told him I did not see what I could do ; so he said : 



SAWIN' 'EM OFF 3OI 

" You go forrard and get your clothes, and I'll pay you 
off and land you." 

I went and got my clothes — and the Lord knows I 
didn't have much to get — and came aft again. He pointed 
over the side to a little island of mud about as big as a 
ship's main hatch, and said : "There's where I'm going to 
land you, on that mud-bank. Is that where you want to go ? " 

" No, sir," said I ; " I don't want to go there ; but if you 
put me there, I don't suppose I can help it." 

" Hadn't you rather go to work than be landed there?" 

" No, sir." 

He turned on his heel and walked aft a little way, and 
returning, said to me : " Now lookee here ; you're on a little 
different lay out from these other fellows. I'm going to 
Charleston to find out if they are entitled to their pay here, 
and if they are, I'll pay them ; but if they ain't, I'll take 'em 

to Liverpool, d 'em, if I have to take 'em every inch 

of the way in irons and work the vessel myself. But if 
you'll turn to and help Mr. Oliver with the ballast, I'll pay 
you off anyway when I get back, and send you to Charleston 
in the Pilot BoyT 

"All right, sir," said I ; " I'll do that." 

So Mr. Oliver and I went at the ballast with a crew of 
negroes, and a couple of days afterwards the captain re- 
turned, called all hands up, took off the irons, and we 
boarded the Pilot Boy, which waited alongside for us. But 
we left her at Beaufort, South Carolina, and stayed there 
over night, going on by train in the morning. 

On our way we concluded to sue the captain for damages, 
and went at once to a trial justice, and told our story. 
He was highly indignant ; said it was the most outrageous 
thing he had ever heard of, putting American citizens in 
irons for simply demanding their pay, when the voyage was 
completed according to all the laws that were ever framed. 



302 ON MANY SEAS 

He said the captain was guilty of assault and battery and 
false imprisonment. 

We explained that we hadn't been licked nor imprisoned, 
except in the 'tween-decks. But he told us that if he only 
stepped outside his office door and put his hand on a man's 
shoulder and required him to step aside against his will, he 
would be guilty of both these offences. 

" So you see that yours is a very aggravated case ; the 
worst I think I ever heard of — shocking, shocking." He 
took a deposition from each of us, and sent after the 
captain. 

He told us our case was safe in his hands, and that he 
would procure us heavy damages. We needn't bother our 
heads until we heard from him. So, leaving him our ad- 
dresses, we bade him good-day, and went away highly 
pleased to think that at last we were to get justice, and 
estimating what amount of damages we were to get. Two 
or three days afterwards we all received notices to be at 
the trial justice's office at two p.m. On arriving there, we 
found the captain not in irons, as we had fondly hoped, 
but sitting behind the railing with the justice, talking and 
laughing as if they were old friends. 

When we were all seated, the justice cleared his throat 
and said : " Ahem ! I have your late captain here, men, 
as you see. I have carefully looked through this matter, 
and I iind that my impressions, hastily formed, were erro- 
neous. The captain's affidavit differs from yours entirely 
and throws new light on the subject, and, after careful 
consideration of all the different statements, I find that you 
have no case." 

Charley Summers rose in his place and asked, " How 
much did he give ye, judge?" 

" Young man," said the justice, severely, " if you're not 
very careful, I shall fine you for contempt of court." 



SAWIN' 'EM OFF 303 

Ned Haly asked the justice if he might ask a question. 

" Yes, sir ; if it's a proper question, you may." 

"Our case ain't es shockin' es it was; is it, jedge?" 
asked Ned. 

"You have no case, no case at all." 

So we walked out and left the immaculate judge and the 
cnptain laughing at us. The street was full of trial justice 
signs, and Summers proposed that we should not give it up, 
but try another; "for," said he, "if we can't get anything 
out of it ourselves, we can make him sick buying those d — d 
sharks of judges." So we went into another of them and 
told him the whole rigmarole. He asked us whom we went 
to with our case. We told him. 

" Ah ! " said he, " that's where you made a mistake. He's 
a carpet-bagger. If you had come to me in the first place, 
I would have got damages for you, — heavy damages." 

VVe told him the case was just as good now as it ever 
was. 

"No doubt, no doubt!" said he; "but it wouldn't be 
courtesy for one trial justice to review the act of another." 

Ned Haly and I lived in the same boarding-house ; and 
after about a week ashore we joined a Nova Scotia bark 
that was bound to Liverpool with a cargo of pitch-pine lum- 
ber, resin, and turpentine. She was down the bay, and we 
went down on a tugboat. When we got there, we found 
out that she was going to sea two men short, and refused 
to heave up the anchor. The mate and second mate — two 
young boys — undertook to bully us ; but we intimated a 
readiness to fight, so they left us alone, and the captain 
went back to town and got two more men. 

Ned was a rank Yankee sailor, and was by no means 
pleased to find himself aboard a Hme-juicer. I didn't mind 
that part of it so much, if we had only got decent grub ; 
but all that we had to eat was a kind of bean soup, flavoured 



304 ON MANY SEAS 

some days with mackerel heads, and others with codfish-skin, 
or tallow. 

One morning — after we had got tired of jawing at the 
cook, and Ned had resented being told by him to go to 
h — 1 by hauling him up on top of the deck-load and kicking 
the stuffing out of him — we took the basin containing our 
swill and carried it aft to the companion-way, and hollered 
to the captain to come up and look at our breakfast. He 
came to the foot of the stairs and asked us what was the 
matter with it. Ned asked him, respectfully, if he would 
please to come up and see what the cook was feeding us on. 

" I know what it is ; it's bean soup, and what's the matter 
with it? " 

"Well, all the matter is that it ain't fit to eat. A hog 
wouldn't eat it." 

" It is fit to eat. I can eat it." 

"Can you eat it?" 

" Yes." 

" Well, then, here it is ; eat it." And he threw the soup 
basin and all down on top of him, and went forward and 
gnawed hardtack for breakfast. 

The captain never changed his shirt from the time we 
first saw him in Charleston until the day before we got the 
Liverpool pilot. One day I remarked to Ned, that I should 
think it was about time he changed himself. "Why," said 
Ned, "don't you know the reason of that?" I told him, 
"No." 

" Well, I can tell you. These Nova Scotiamen are brought 
up on gaspereau, a small and very bony fish, and they eat so 
many of them before they leave home that the bones stick 
out through their backs, so that they can't pull a shirt off 
without tearing it all to pieces.. Consequently, they never 
take one off until it is worn out. So when you see a Nova 
Scotiaman with a clean shirt on, you go up to him, and, 



SAWIN' 'EM OFF 305 

rubbing your hand up and down his backbone, say to him, 
' Why, h ! you've been sawin' 'em off, hain't ye? ' " 

We had received forty dollars apiece in Charleston, sup- 
posed to be advance wages at thirty dollars a month, but 
understood by everybody concerned to be the price of the 
run across, as no vessel ever keeps a crew aboard in Liver- 
pool. As soon as we got within jumping distance of the 
pier head, Ned and I collared our clothes-bags and sprang 
ashore, and the mate after us, shouting to us to come back, 
as he had a couple of miles to haul through the dock to get 
the bark to her berth. We told him to go somewhere, I 
don't just remember where, and he started for help to make 
us go aboard again. Before we got out of the dock we met 
him coming with a poUceman, and telling him that we had 
not yet worked up our advance wages, he demanded that he 
either arrest us or send us back aboard again. 

"'Ave ye ever a bit o' 'ard about ye, lads?" said the 
officer. 

We each produced a small plug of 'ard tobacco, — a very 
popular currency in Britain, — and pressed them upon him. 

Turning to the mate, he said, " Wy do you bother the 
lads ? It's only natural they should want to get ashore after 
their voyage. Go on, lads ; you are all right." 

Ned went to board down among the tough packet-ship 
element; but as I had made up my mind to make another 
deep-water voyage, I went to a respectable boarding-house. 
I didn't see very much of Liverpool, not having any money 
to spare, and what I did see didn't impress me very favour- 
ably. I went down to the neighbourhood where the Ameri- 
can sailors hung out, — at Denison Street I think it was ; 
but they were a low down, ragged, drunken-looking lot of 
hoodlums, whom I dechned to associate with. You may 
think that I was rather fine haired after my experience on 
the west coast. But there is as much difference between the 



306 ON MANY SEAS 

rollicking, devil-may-care beach-comber of the Pacific coast 
and the dirty, ragged, rum-soaked " packet rat," as there is 
between reckless decency and thorough ingrained black- 
guardism anywhere. So I chose the society of "juicers," 
who were good fellows and clean. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

An Iron Lime-Juicer. — Sick in Calcutta. — A Fight for 
Water. — Back to London. — New Orleans Cotton 
Wagons. 

After a fortnight's rest ashore, I shipped — as Ned had 
sneeringly predicted I would — in a big iron ship, named 
the Brompton Town, bound for Calcutta, with over three 
thousand tons of salt. She belonged to a large fleet of 
ships owned by a company in Liverpool, which also ran a 
line of passenger steamers to New York ; and it was said 
that our captain was the commodore of the sailing fleet, 
and expected next month to get a steamer. 

The previous voyage she had been to San Francisco, and 
the apprentices told us that both the skipper and his ship 
had been greatly lionized there. It was also said that when 
a young man he" had sailed for some years in American ves- 
sels. Whether this was so or not, of course I can't say ; 
but he certainly did put on some of the lugs that are more 
characteristic of American than of English shipmasters. He 
made not the slightest familiarity with any one, not even 
the first mate. On the contrary, he had that poor man so 
gallied that, to use a popular expression, he " didn't know 
which end his head was on." 

When we got to Calcutta, and began to discharge the salt, 
one of our crew died. He had been there the voyage 
before, and contracted chronic dysentery. 

307 



308 ON MANY SEAS 

It was on Sunday that we buried him, and all hands 
washed up, shaved, cut their hair, and went ashore to the 
funeral. 

There were six native bearers to carry the body. They 
had on their national costume, which consisted of a clout 
about the waist, and, in addition, each one wore a plug hat 
of ancient fashion and a long piece of black mosquito net 
tied just above the elbow. They shouldered the corpse and 
started off at the regular jog trot of the palanquin bearers, 
chanting their droning refrain : 

" Curry and rice, two rupee ; 
Heavy beggar, let him drop." 

We started after them in the broiling sun, to march to the 
cemetery, but as we were in danger of losing sight of the 
bearers, our only pilots, we were forced to break into a run, 
too. Some of the boys gave it up altogether, and returned 
to town to drown sorrow in Old London Dock gin. 

A few of us stuck to it, and arrived in time to see the 
bearers pass on each side of the open grave, and, at a given 
signal from their leader, cant their shoulders enough to 
allow the coffin to drop kerplunk to the bottom of the hole, 
when it was speedily covered up. 

I got the dysentery, too, before long, and came near dying 
in the College Hospital. This is the case I referred to when 
relating my experience in the James L. Baker in the West 
Indies. I had been in the hospital a couple of weeks, and 
was getting weaker and weaker, when one day I heard the 
nurse ask the house doctor what she had better do for me. 

" Nothing," said he. " Nothing ; he's as dead now as 
if his head was cut off. He'll go about sundown." But 
though I knew he was speaking of me, and believed what 
he said myself, I didn't care any more than if he had been 
talking about a coolie in Bombay. 



A CALCUTTA FUNERAL 309 

When the cargo was in, and the ship ready for sea, I was 
able to go aboard, and soon after getting out in blue water 
I turned to. Nothing worth mentioning occurred on the 
homeward-bound passage, if I except a little clash that I had 
with the mate one day. He accused me of " sojering " on 
the fore topsail halyards. It was a hot day, and we had 
been shifting sails, unbending the good sails we had used off 
the Cape of Good Hope, and bending the old rags for the 
fine weather. We had been at it all day, and were all pretty 
well tired and played out, and although the ship carried an 
abundant supply of water in a big iron tank down below, 
under no circumstances would they give us one drop over 
our allowance of three quarts per man, per day of twenty- 
four hours. And out of that the cook had to take what he 
needed to do our cooking. So that about all that was left 
for us was a couple of good drinks of warm water, and after 
that we could go dry until the next afternoon. 

We afterwards, on nearing the English Channel, pumped 
this fresh water out of the tank, and used it to scrub the 
paintwork with. But, on the occasion of which I write, we 
were all hot and tired, and nearly dead with thirst. There 
had been considerable quiet grumbling already about the 
unlimited allowance of work, and the very strict observance 
of the Act of Parliament in regard to the allowance of water. 
So when the mate jumped on me for sojering in the halyards, 
I told him that perhaps all hands would be able to do better 
if they had a drink of water. 

"Don't you get your allowance of water?" said he. 

I told him I supposed I did, but that I was getting more 
than my allowance of work. 

"You get more than you're worth, you bloody, 'ungry 
Yankee," said he ; and he made a dab at me. 

I dropped the halyards and grabbed his long whiskers 
with one hand, and punched him with the other. We 



310 ON MANY SEAS 

clinched, and down we went. But the third mate and a 
couple of apprentices pulled us apart. The mate had a 
bloody nose, and a black eye, and a few less whiskers than 
he had on the start. My share was a bloody nose, a swelled 
lip, and ten days in irons in a spare stateroom in the cabin ; 
also honourable mention in the official log. 

The imprisonment was hardly of a nature to be considered 
as a hardship. For the steward, being, as all stewards are, 
a left-handed friend of the mate, kept me supplied with 
delicacies from the cabin table. And my incarceration also 
occurred at a time when all hands were being worked to 
death. So that it was with some hesitation that I answered 
the captain in the affirmative, when I was brought up before 
him and asked if I thought I could behave myself now, if 
he let me out of irons. I knew pretty near how the land 
lay thereabouts ; for, in the first place, the captain was no 
admirer of the mate, and then again there was plenty of 
work for all hands to do ; and of course my offence was not 
a very grave one, as I had only defended myself when at- 
tacked, which almost any one would do, and it was generally 
understood that the old man was in favour of " bucko " 
officers, and therefore could hardly be expected to approve 
of the mate for not giving a better account of himself in the 
scrap. At any rate, I noticed that no deduction was made 
from my pay, when we got to London, on account of my 
enforced holiday. 

Again I was in London, and *' well-heeled " financially 
once more. I fitted myself out with both shore and sea 
togs, and was having a good time, having, as usual, fallen in 
love with the landlord's daughter, to whom I presented an 
old, half-blind, rock parrot that I bought of a coolie in Cal- 
cutta for a blanket. 

All the old parrot had ever been known to say up to that 
time was " squawk," but on being addressed by a female 



A CALCUTTA FUNERAL 31I 

voice, he cocked his head to one side for a minute, and sud- 
denly broke out with a remark that I will not record here, 
but which showed his bringing up before he came into my 
possession, and cost me the young lady's regards, as she 
promptly wrung his neck, and transferred her affections to 
a coloured cook, who had just returned from Australia, and 
outbid me with a great white cockatoo, who could sing 
" Rule Britannia" and " Not for Joe." 

One day I fell in with an American sailor, who told me 
that an American shipping-master had come over from 
Havre, and was trying to get crews for two New Orleans 
" cotton wagons," and asked me why I didn't ship and 
get away from the lime-juicers. I thought I would, and he 
and I hunted up Mr. Lynch, and agreed to go with him to 
Havre, and ship in the American ship Aden for Southwest 
Pass at three pounds fifteen shillings per month, with one 
month's advance, — two pounds in London, and one pound 
fifteen shillings on arrival at Havre, — our passage from 
London to be paid by him. The next day we left London 
by train, and arrived the following morning by boat at 
Havre. 

It was the first time I had ever been in the place, and it 
seemed strange that it could be so F)-e7ich, for, in my mind, 
it had always been associated with American commerce to 
such an extent that it almost seemed like a home port. 
The first thing to do was, of course, to get the rest of our 
advance. So all hands hung round Mr. Lynch's office, 
until at last, he came leisurely down the street, and walk- 
ing up to the crowd told the partner I had picked out and 
myself and two others to come upstairs. We went up, and 
he said to us : " You four are good men, and I'm going to 

give you your money, as I agreed to, but them other d 

raynecks won't get but ten francs apiece ; so when you go 
downstairs, if they ask any questions, you tell 'em that's all 



312 ON MANY SEAS 

you got, d'ye hear?" He had his partner with him, big 
Mike Donovan. Both of them had world-wide reputations 
among American sailors as being experts in the art offen- 
sive. Many an unruly sailor have they sent to hospital for 
objecting to their business methods. So we told them we 
heard ; and took our money and went down, to be greeted 
outside the door by an anxious crowd, all eagerly inquiring, 
" Wha' d'e give ye? Wha' d'ye git?" We told them we 
got what was coming to us, of course, and showed them the 
money. 

They wanted to know what he said. We assumed an air 
of importance, and told them he said something about ten 
francs, but that we wouldn't have it that way. They ap- 
plauded us, and said they wouldn't either. No funny busi- 
ness for them; no, sir! Just then the door at the head, 
of the stairs opened, and Lynch called out for two or three 
to come up. "Two's enough at a time," said he, as several 
of them made a break for the stairs. They had hardly got 
inside when we heard loud talking, and presently the door 
was swung violently open from the inside, and down came 
the two unfortunates on their heads, while Mr. Lynch called 
out cheerily from above, " Come up here, a couple more of 
ye ; " and caUing my partner by name, he remarked that he 
would see us four in Havre again some time, and make it 
pleasant for us. What he ever did for the others I can't 
say ; but he certainly kept his word to me. 

We sported a bit that night, with the last of our money, 
and the next day we went to sea. 

The Aden was an old-fashioned New Orleans and Havre 
packet-ship, and the captain was an old packet captain. 
His pleasantest word was an oath. The mates were not 
such bad fellows, but then they had a much better crew 
than such ships usually get ; for the kind of rabble that 
were in the habit of following up that business were about 



A CALCUTTA FUNERAL 313 

the poorest truck that go afloat anywhere. Packet rats 
they are called, and are well named. The captains and 
officers are so accustomed to being obliged to curse and 
thump them to get anything out of them, that they seem to 
forget that there are sailo?-s anywhere. We had one regular 
packet rat in our watch. His name was Tommy Cotter. 
He had sailed in the Aden several times before, and de- 
clared that he never saw her so quiet Sometimes he would 

say, when the bell struck, " H ! four bells and nobody 

hurted yet. What's de matter I guess?" One day Tommy 
was coiling down the ropes on the poop, left-handed, and 
the old man cursed him, and asked him, " What the devil 
are ye, anyway?" 

" I'm a paper-hanger, sir. When you git ready to paper 
de cabin, if you'll just let me know, sir, I'll take de dimen- 
sions for ye, sir, an' do it right. De principal ting is to git 
de dimensions right, sir." 

The old man here punctuated Tommy's remarks with his 
toe several times, kicking and cursing him all the way down 
on the main deck. 

But Tommy didn't mind that ; it was what he was used 
to, and had missed, so far, on the present voyage. It 
seemed to break the dull monotony and cheer him up. 

He had been at sea for over twenty years, always in the 
New Orleans packets, and was as worthless a man as I ever 
saw aboard ship. It didn't seem as if there was a single 
thing that he knew. But when he got ashore, and got half 
full of New Orleans Tanglefoot, he would hardly have con- 
descended to shake hands with Admiral Farragut himself. 
And it is such cattle that represent themselves as Yankee 
sailors. 

After the usual buffeting and battling with the head gales 
and seas of the western ocean, we arrived at Southwest 
Pass, and got orders to proceed to New Orleans ; and giving 



314 ON MANY SEAS 

the end of our rope to one of the giant tugs that wait there, 
we were dragged up the muddy Father of Waters, past the 
forts, where, a few years before, Farragut performed a naval 
feat that will be memorable while history endures ; and we 
tied the old girl up to the levee, and walked ashore in this 
American French city. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

French Louis' Boarding House. — Bucko Officers. — 
Slaughter from the Word Go. — I Meditate Murder 
AND Keep My Knife Sharp. 

Of course we had no money, but sailors are not supposed 
to have money in New Orleans. They get a month's ad- 
vance that pays for their board and rum while ashore, go to 
Liverpool or Havre, and do the same thing there, returning 
as rich as when they left. My chum, George Englebert, an 
Australian, and I went to board with French Louis. He 
claimed to have been a quartermaster in the ship that 
brought Napoleon's remains from St. Helena. He was also 
a brother-in-law of Madame John, the American boarding- 
mistress " par excellence " in Havre. He gave us diluted, 
very much diluted, claret instead of tea and coffee, and 
when we kicked about his frequent fiUing of the decanter at 
the faucet, he repHed : " Odtherr boardin'-'ouse givee you 
tea an' coffee mix wid waterr, / givee you wine mix wid 
waterr. Dat is betterr." 

He was very Frenchy and important, and when he came 
up to Jackson Square police court one morning, and 
whispered in the ear of the presiding magistrate a magic 
syllable that rescued George and me from the prospect of 
making an involuntary trip to the prison at Baton Rouge, 
New Orleans was hardly big enough to hold him for a week 
after, and we had to verify his account of the transaction to 

315 



3l6 ON MANY SEAS 

everybody that he could get to listen to it. I must not omit 
to say that Louis did not forget to "set 'em up " on all such 
occasions. The ground floor was divided into two rooms. 
The front was the bar-room and sitting-, or, rather, lodging- 
room, and the back one was our dining-room, from which 
the stairs went up to the dormitory. There was a door 
between the two, which Louis religiously locked every 
night. But there was a hole in the partition between the 
two rooms about two feet square, containing a model of 
a full-rigged ship. And at night, after Louis and Blanche 
had retired, if we happened to be dry or sleepless, — and we 
usually did, — a couple of us would slip downstairs, and re- 
moving the model, one would go through into the bar-room 
and hand out such refreshment as seemed desirable ; and 
these we would take upstairs to wile away the time until 
either daylight or sleep overtook us. Louis knew that we 
were poaching on his preserves, but couldn't find out how it 
was done, as the door was always securely locked as he left 
it. So, to get square as far as possible, he watered our wine 
more than ever. 

I had no ambition to become a " packet rat," so I told 
him that he would have to get me something else than a 
Liverpool or Havre voyage. He asked me if I would go to 
Genoa, and I told him yes. So he shipped George and me 
in the ship Westhampton, with tobacco for Genoa. 

And here I wish to call attention to what was at that 
time a time-honoured custom in New Orleans. That was 
for each boarding- master to furnish every man, on leaving 
his house, with at least a gallon of liquid known as Old 
Levee Tanglefoot. 

The man who sent his boarders to sea the best equipped 
in this manner, could refer to it with pride on board of 
incoming ships, and thereby secure more custom than the 
mean man, who let his boarders go with only a quart or so 



BUCKO OFFICERS 317 

of that very powerful stimulant. The result of this very 
laudable emulation on the part of these worthies was, that on 
the long tow down from New Orleans to the bar, the crews 
were in a state of riotous and insubordinate drunkenness ; 
and as there is lots of work to be done at this time to get 
ready for sea, the officers have their hands full. And if you 
take into consideration that every man aboard, from the 
captain down, prides himself on being a "bucko," — a 
fighter, that is to say, — you can easily realize that there is 
not much monotony at the start. 

On the contrary, to use a favourite expression of the 
packet rats, it's "Slaughter from the word go " j for the 
officers stake their reputation on their ability to lick the crew 
into shape, and get the work done. While the crew, on 
the other hand, have their own reputations as bad men to 
uphold, and it was not at all uncommon in those days for 
lives to be sacrificed in the general melee, towing down the 
river. The officers of the Westhampton were no slouches 
by any means, and the crew were of the average New 
Orleans type. The captain had the credit of having shot 
three men off the topsail yard the voyage before ; but while 
I can't vouch for the truth of that, I know he had a playful 
habit of throwing a two-foot piece of deck-plank down on 
the heads of the men at the weather main-braces. The 
lucky man — he who was hit — then had the privilege of 
carrying the bouquet, as it was called, back to him ready 
for next time. 

The mate was a big, brawny, Boston Scotchman, with a 
record, and a full beard in which he seemed to take great 
pride. The second mate was a long, bony Nova Scotia- 
man, by name McDonald. The second mate of a packet- 
ship is supposed to be a " horse," and Mr. McDonald filled 
the bill to perfection. The man who would give him a 
fight was the man he loved. 



3l8 ON MANY SEAS 

The third mate, Parker, was a Swede, and different from 
any Swede I ever saw ; for as a rule they are peaceable, nice 
fellows. But Parker was a terror. 

So when sailing-day came, we boarded the old hooker 
about sundown. Drunk? Certainly. The man who would 
board an outward-bound ship in those days and in those 
latitudes, otherwise, didn't know his business, and would 
lead a dog's Hfe both fore and aft for the whole voyage. 
Besides, he needed some kind of stimulant to carry him 
through the ordeal of " towing down." 

Before we had time to stow our dunnage in the fore- 
castle and compare the size of our whiskey bottles, Parker 
was at one door and McDonald at the other, with belaying 
pins in their hands, yeUing at us to come out for a lot of 

d sojers and shoemakers, or they'd see what we were 

made of. And they punctuated their remarks by hitting 
the first and the last man with their pins, — a good old 
fashion which ordinarily tends to hasten the exit, after the 
first man gets out. 

It was soon dark, and then the circus began in earnest. 
The cuss word and the crunch of the belaying pin were con- 
tinually in our ears and on our heads. Every little while, 
one of the mates would be overpowered and go down under a 
yelling and kicking crowd ; but only for a moment, when the 
others would come to his rescue, and, as they were sober, it 
was easy to pull off the sailors and club and kick them out 
of the way. I got away from the crowd, and started to lash 
a water-cask that I saw was adrift, thinking to save my bacon 
in that way. Vain hope ! The big mate came along, and 

seeing what I was doing, he said, " What in h are you 

doin'? skulkin', hey? Git forward there'n help overhaul 

that starboard chain, d you ! " And he gave me a belt 

on the side of the head that sent me sprawling ; but before 
I touched the deck he hoisted me with his toe, so that I 



BUCKO OFFICERS 319 

landed some four or five feet farther ahead than I would 
have done under the impetus of the blow alone. 

I have said that the mate had a record. I gathered my- 
self up, looking apprehensively behind me ; but I had appar- 
ently got my allowance, for he had gone off again. So I 
started fo?"ward; and as I was limping by the forecastle 
door, an arm shot out of the darkness from within and 
caught me by the collar, dragging me inside, and a voice 
said, in a rich Irish brogue : 

" Where the divil are ye goin', ye bloody fool? Come in 
here before ye're murthered. Howly Moses, but this is a red- 
hot ship. Did ye get iver a welt from that bloody big brute 
of a mate ? Be me sowl, I'd rather I was kicked by a mule. 
Bad luck to him anyway, but he gev me the divil's own 
larrup just now. If I don't git square wid dat ladybuck 
before we get back from Genoa ye kin tell your folks that 
Dublin's an ould woman. Here, man, have a sup o' this new 
milk. It'll fix ye so ye won't moind thim ; " and he shoved 
a bottle under my nose in the darkness that smelt worse 
than a sugar droger's bilge-water. But I was desper- 
ate, and took a boatswain's slug out of it, and felt better 
right away ; so much better that I determined to go out 
and hunt up the mate and ask him what he meant by hit- 
ting me that way, and demand an apology at once ; but 
from certain unmistakable sounds that were wafted in 
through the open door, I knew that the carnage was still in 
progress. So I accepted the next proposition that came 
to my mind, and rolled into the nearest bunk, and dropped 
instantly into a peaceful and dreamless slumber. How long 
I slept I have not the shghtest idea, but I was rudely awak- 
ened by being dragged out of the bunk by the hair of the 
head. 

McDonald was holding a lantern, and it was the mate — 
sweet bad luck to him ! — who had come across my hawse 



320 ON MANY SEAS 

again. Amid a volley of curses he kicked, thumped, and 
flung me out of the door on deck ; and, following me out, 
picked me up by the hair again, and standing me up against 
the rail, he grasped me by the throat, and, with my head 
jammed solidly against a dead-eye, he hit me as hard as he 
could right on the eye, laying my cheek open to the bone, 
and giving me a mark I shall carry to the grave. Up went 
his fist again, and, believing my life to be in danger, I tried 
to get out my knife, but my arms were jammed in such a 
way that I could not reach it ; but just as I was scringing 
for the second blow I felt his grasp on my throat relax, and 
he fell back away from me to the tune of a wild Irish yell : 

" Ho, ye blackguard, I have ye now ! and be the powers 
I'll pay ye for some o' the work you've done this night, ye 
murtherin' baste ye ! " and all the time the good solid blows 
were being rained down on the mate, who was on his knees 
on the deck, trying to rise, and cursing and yelling for 
McDonald and Parker. The blood was pouring down my 
face in a perfect torrent, and I felt weak and dizzy, but I 
got in a good kick on his jaw, and another in his ribs, 
besides a couple of punches, which, though weak, I found 
highly gratifying. 

All this time Dublin was working away like a pile-driver 
with something, I couldn't see what, and yelling and curs- 
ing like a madman ; and the mate, who must have had a 
head of iron to stand the terrific blows he was getting, now 
began to shout that he was being murdered. As I was 
shifting round him to get in another kick, somebody caught 
me by the neck and threw me down on my back on the 
deck, and a heavy foot was planted on my chest, while I 
heard a strange voice say, " Here, stop that ; let up, do you 
hear, or I'll blow the d head off of you ! " 

"Who in hell are_}'^z/?" said Dublin, who had just been 
grabbed about the waist by Parker. 



BUCKO OFFICERS 32 1 

" I'm captain of this ship, and I want this thing stopped ; 
it's gone far enough." 

" Well, then, call off your dogs. They're killing an' mur- 
therin' all hands." By this time the mate had got to his 
feet, and made a staggering rush at Dublin. But the cap- 
tain interfered, and told him he'd shoot him if he didn't 
keep quiet. " What's that you have there?" said the cap- 
tain, pointing to Dublin's weapon. " That's the bread 
barge, and it makes a foine boxin' glove to dale with these 
sports of yours," said Dublin. 

The captain told him to put it away, and asked where 
McDonald was. Nobody knew, but Dublin vouchsafed the 
information that the last he knew he was lying on his long 
back in the forecastle. It seems that Dublin had turned in 
and gone to sleep the same time that I did, but the noise 
of my awakening roused him, and he saw McDonald going 
round the forecastle looking for more skulkers. So he kept 
shady until the mate came within reach, when he shot out 
his right foot, taking him square in the face, and knocking 
him down. He then jumped out of his bunk, and, as he 
said afterwards, " gev him a couple of bars of a Dublin quay 
jig, on his ugly mug, to aise him " ; and then hearing the 
mate amusing himself with me, and having already a score 
of his own to settle with that amiable gentleman, he, by the 
light of the second mate's lantern, spied the bread barge. 
This was a box made of inch- pine boards, about twenty 
inches long by eight inches square, and solid all round, 
with a round hole in one end of the top side, to reach in 
and get the hardtack out. He rove his arm into this, 
like a big wooden glove, and rushing out, dealt the mate a 
swinging blow with all his force, square on the top of the 
head. It was this blow which caused him to relax his 
hold on my throat, and fall backwards on deck. And it 
was with this same weapon that Dublin had since been 

Y 



322 ON MANY SEAS 

beating him. A look in the forecastle failed to discover 
McDonald, and the mate insisted that Dublin had mur- 
dered him and thrown him overboard, and wanted the 
captain to shoot both Dublin and me, then and there. 
But while we were all wrangling over the matter, McDonald 
himself put in an appearance. He had, on coming to, 
gone aft to inspect himself and repair damages. The cap- 
tain ordered Dublin and me to go on deck to work, and 
told the mate to quit fighting, and get the ship ready for 
sea. 

Dublin turned to the mate and asked him if it was safe 
for us to go to work. 

" I'll tell you what I'll do," said he, glaring at us through 
blood and matted hair. " I'll run you two hounds over- 
board, before this ship's half-way to Key West." 

" All right," said Dublin ; and turning to the captain, he 
added, " You hear that, sir. We'll look out for ourselves 
the best way we kin. Come on, shipmate, lave us git out 
o' this ; " and we went out at one door, and they went at 
the other. 

I was about to go aft, where I heard some of the men 
pulling and hauling, when Dublin grasped my arm, and 
said, "Here, where are ye goin' ? Come in here." 

So back we went into the forecastle, and talked the 
situation over. We agreed that we had struck a pretty 
tough crowd, and that the mate would never forgive us, 
but would be as good as his word. We also had two or 
three nips out of Dublin's bottle, by way of a comforter, 
and the conclusion we finally arrived at was, that it was 
either the mate's life or ours ; and Dubhn swore that if he 
ever raised his hand to him again, he'd cut his heart out. 
The bottle being now empty, we went on deck. It was 
raining a light cold drizzle which was very dispiriting. My 
mind was full of the mate's threat to run me overboard, 



BUCKO OFFICERS 323 

and I knew he was a man likely to keep his word in a case 
of that kind. The more I thought about it, the more en- 
raged I got, until at last I thought I would hunt him up, 
and knife him at once. But then I remembered what a 
powerful and tough man he was, and I concluded that the 
chances were against my succeeding, if I attacked him 
openly, and if I failed that would give him all the excuse 
he needed to finish me then and there. 

I was alongside the deck-house when this thought oc- 
curred to me. There were two water-casks lashed close 
up to the side of the house, with a space between their 
heads where a man could just stand. It was pitch dark in 
there. I knew that at any moment the mate was liable to 
pass that way, and I stepped in between the casks and drew 
my sheath knife. It was new and not very sharp, but I 
whetted it on the chime hoop of the cask until it had a saw- 
like edge upon it, and then I waited. I stood with my 
right foot slightly behind me and against the side of the 
house, so that I could give myself a good spring out. I 
would leap out on him with my arm extended to its full 
length, and plunge the knife into him, just below the ribs, 
to the hilt if I could, and then with all my strength I would 
cut him open as far as possible. Oh, how I ached to have 
him come along, and how strong I felt, and with what glee 
I would spring out and give him the fatal dig. 

Once I heard him just at the corner of the house, damning 
somebody, and I left my retreat to go for him there ; but 
just before I got to him I heard Mr. McDonald talking with 
him, so I slunk back to my place again, and waited. 

By this time I was getting pretty well drenched with the 
rain, and feeling uncomfortably cold. My teeth began to 
chatter. The effects of the benzine I had taken began to 
ooze away, and I began to realize what it was that I was 
standing there for, and to think how differently it would 



324 ON MANY SEAS 

all seem the next day, a week, a month afterward. I 
realized that no jury on earth would ever justify such a 
deed as I had planned. Then my thoughts turned to home, 
and I wondered if it was possible that I, Fred Williams, 
could ever become a murderer. I remembered what my 
good old aunt, down in Maine, said to me once when 
lecturing me for some boyish prank. She solemnly told 
me that the way of the transgressor was hard, and said I 
would find it so, and also cheerfully predicted that if I 
didn't mend my ways I would eventually fetch up on the 
gallows. I began to be at first ashamed, and afterwards 
alarmed to think how near I had come to committing 
murder, I remembered a good many things in a very few 
minutes, that I had not thought of before in years. And 
while I stood there thinking, the mate went by, kicking and 
cursing one of the men, and I let him go, put up my knife, 
and followed on. But I did promise myself, that if at any 
time I really believed he was trying to kill me, I would 
defend my life at any cost, but under no other circumstances 
would I attempt his life. 

The day at last dawned, cold and drizzly. We hauled 
in the tow-line and got sail on her. And so, true to the 
traditions, the Westhampton towed down the river with the 
usual ^clat attending the sailing of a New Orleans packet. 

Daylight showed us up to be a handsome crowd. All 
hands, from the mate down, were more or less battle-scarred. 
Parker's big nose was twice as big as it was the day before, 
while McDonald's face looked as if he had fallen head first 
into a sausage machine, — the result, no doubt, of Dublin's 
terpsichorean exercises. One side of the mate's jaw, where 
I had kicked him, stuck out quite prominently ; but it was 
when he raised his hat to feel his head that one saw the 
strange criss-cross designs in court-plaster that proved that 
he had not shirked the responsibilities of his position. 



BUCKO OFFICERS 325 

There were a few knock-downs during the day, but nothing 
that could be called a fight. We had been up all night ; 
and they kept us at it all day, until eight o'clock that night, 
when the watches were chosen, Dublin and I both being 
picked by the mate, which confirmed our suspicions that 
we were not through with him yet. 

The mate made a short speech, telling us that we were 
the most useless d — d lot of hounds he ever saw scraped 
together, and that, if we didn't show up any better than we 
had on the start, he'd make the ship so hot for us that we 

would wish ourselves in h , to cool off. " When I call a 

man," said he, " I want him to come ; but I don't want him 
to run. I don't want no man to run when I call him, but 
d him I want him tery?)'." 

When the watch was called, although we would turn in 
all standing Uke a trooper's horse, and jump for the door as 
soon as we heard the call, yet before we could get on deck 
he would be standing in the waist, yelling, " Come, git along 

here, scrapin's o' h ! " And it would be a wonder if 

somebody didn't get knocked down before the wheel was 
relieved. Then, before the watch was allowed to go below, 
he would have us pulling and hauUng for half or three- 
quarters of an hour on braces and halyards. 

One night when he was giving us a lot of dry pulling, we 
tried to tire him by not singing out. We were on the lee 
main topsail brace, and a steam-winch could not have got 
another inch on it ; but he wouldn't sing out. Belay ! so 
we simply jerked away on it in silence. But we couldn't 
fool him that way. He came quietly over to the lee side, 
and gave one of the men a kick in the ribs with his heavy 
sea-boot ; and when the fellow failed to stifle an exclama- 
tion of pain, the mate said, " Aha, dogonne ye ! I thought 
ye was dumb ! " 

There was a grindstone underneath the topgallant fore- 



326 ON MANY SEAS 

castle, and I made a practice of sharpening my knife on it 
daily. Three times he came along and caught me at it. 
The third time, he asked me, in his surly way, " How the 

h is it you are always grinding that knife?" I looked 

him squarely in the eye, and told him I thought it was a 
good idea to always have a sharp knife. 

"You're one of them d fools," said he, "that don't 

know when it's time to let a thing drop." But I didn't 
trust him, and 1 kept my knife sharp. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

A Peaceful Homeward Voyage. — Back to Havre. — 
A Guest of the City. — Mam'selle John. 

Dublin was never troubled again after that night on the 
river, but nearly everybody else got more or less licking. 
I got only one knock-down afterwards, and that was on the 
homeward-bound passage. 

By the time we got to Genoa all hands were more or 
less well licked into shape, and the captain was nursing a 
sore leg. He had made a kick in through the pilot-house 
window at the man at the wheel, one dog-watch, when the 
little Liverpool tough caught hold of his foot, and tried to 
saw his leg off with his sheath knife. Before McDonald, 
in response to the old man's yells for help, could get around 
and pull his leg out of the window, it had quite a gash in 
it. Nothing, however, was done to the man except to lick 
him when he came from the wheel. 

There are no wharves in Genoa. All vessels lie at anchor 
inside the breakwater, and discharge into lighters. It was 
hard work heaving up the big hogsheads of tobacco with 
the winch, and we worked long days. At last it was decided 
to ask for liberty, and Dublin, I, and another went aft one 
Saturday night, as a committee to prefer the request. We 
considered we were just about taking our lives in our hands 
in doing so, but nearly died of surprise when our request 
was granted without the slightest demur. 

327 



328 ON MANY SEAS 

The port watch got ten dollars apiece, and liberty until 
sundown Sunday, the starboard watch to have the same 
the following week. 

We went ashore and had a glorious time, — got into a 
fight with the police and a lot of natives, and enjoyed our- 
selves royally. Genoa is the only place I was ever in where 
it was impossible to find a single soul that could speak Eng- 
lish. Genoa and Glasgow are the two cities containing the 
most universally handsome women that I have ever seen. 
The Genoese ladies are dark, and all wear mustachios ; but 
they are beauties nevertheless. The Glasgow lassies are all 
blondes, with lovely blue eyes, and the most magnificent 
complexions and abundant fluffy golden hair in the world. 
But I think the Scotch girls are the nicest. You don't feel 
like trusting the Italian. She has a vicious snap in her 
black eyes that portends evil to him who should be so 
unfortunate as to fall under her displeasure, and they are 
said to be a jealous and vixenish lot. 

Although we couldn't find any one who could speak Eng- 
lish, we did find an old boatman who made us understand 
that he would buy any tobacco that we might have to sell ; 
and as we had lots of it in the forecastle that we had picked 
up in the hold, it was agreed that he should come off under 
the bow Monday evening, and we would have it ready for 
him. 

The harbour was full of police boats pulling about day 
and night, but of course he knew all about that, and would 
look out for himself So after going aboard Sunday, we 
gathered all the tobacco we could, and filled two bedticks. 
We were bound to give the old fellow a good bargain, so he 
would want to come again. 

Monday night, at about eleven o'clock, the man who was 
keeping lookout on the forecastle-head reported that our 
naerchant was there, and two of us, after taking a look aft 



DROUTH IN HAVRE 329 

to see that the coast was clear, shouldered the two mattresses 
and carried them up, and looking over the bow we could 
dimly see the old fellow in his boat hanging on to the 
anchor-chain ; so we hailed in a whisper, " All right, Johnny." 

" All righty Chonny," was whispered back ; and making 
the end of a chest-lashing fast around them both, we lifted 
and shoved them over, and then, as they were heavy, we 
hung back and lowered away carefully until we felt them land. 

On looking over to tell him to let go the lashing, what 
was our surprise to see by the lantern that we had lowered 
them into a police boat. They had come drifting quietly 
along, and the old fellow, catching sight of them, had let 
go the chain cable and dropped astern. But they, smelling 
a rat, instead of pursuing him, had dropped into his place 
in time to receive our contraband tobacco. 

Here was a fine how d'ye do. Well, there was only 
one thing for it. We threw our end of the chest-lashing 
into the boat, and, scurrying into the forecastle, turned in 
and snored hke grampuses. 

In the meantime, the boat dropped alongside the gang- 
way, and the officer in charge, who could speak no English, 
had his men bring up the mattresses, while he called the 
captain, and pretty soon we heard the whole lot of them 
coming forward. The mate called us out, but of course we 
knew nothing about it, and no more was ever said ; but our 
smuggling enterprise, which might have yielded us quite a 
fair revenue, was most ignominiously nipped in the bud. 

Nothing of any account happened on the passage home. 
The mates, to keep their hands in, did a little occasional 
thumping, but that had long ceased to excite any interest. 

After the usual short stay in New Orleans, I shipped in 
the bark Calcium, of Bath, for Havre, and in due time we 
dined at Madame John's boarding-house. 

We knocked about here for a couple of weeks. I saw 



330 ON MANY SEAS 

Mr. Lynch once or twice, and was satisfied that he recog- 
nized me. He asked me one day where I belonged, and I 
told him New York. "You are a long way from home," 
said he. " I have been farther," said I, and that was all 
that passed between us ; but I knew he would do me a left- 
handed favour if he had a chance. 

One day a big ship came in from San Francisco, and the 
third mate proved to be an old shipmate of Englebert's, so 
the first night he came ashore he took George and me in 
tow. We acted as pilots, showing him the Havre elephants, 
and in return he paid the freight. 

Along towards morning we were attacked by a severe 
drouth, and everything being closed up, we made for the 
only light in view, which was shining through the glass in 
the upper half of a store door. 

We kicked and pounded on the door, and as no one came 
to let us in, the third mate wrapped a handkerchief about 
his hand, smashed the glass, and then reaching inside, turned 
the key. 

We walked in, to find ourselves confronted by a big, fat, 
and very irate Frenchman with nothing on but his reposing 
robe, and armed with a huge cheese knife with which he 
gesticulated in a very unfriendly manner. 

In vain did we try to pacify him. We could get nothing 
out of him but a long string of " sacr^s " and " cochons " ; 
and while we were still arguing for cognac, four gendarmes 

— those banes of the American sailor — marched in and 
made us prisoners. We were locked up, and the next 
morning we were fined fifteen francs and two sous each, 

— the regular fine always imposed on disorderly sailors 
who are arrested in Havre. Our friend, the third mate, 
was able to pay his own fine, and promised to get more 
money that night and pay ours. But alas for frail human 
friendship, we never saw him more. 



DROUTH IN HAVRE 33 I 

George and I, being penniless, were locked up in the 
little stone jug down on the dock. This is a building about 
fifteen feet square, the larger part of which is occupied as a 
guard-room by the gendarmes. One small room, about 
eight feet by ten, is set off for a lockup, and into this we 
were thrust. One side of it is occupied by an inclined 
plane of bare boards that will accommodate six or seven 
men. The head of this couch is against the wall, and the 
foot is about two feet from the other wall, and the same 
height above the floor, forming a narrow passage where we 
— if, as we usually were, were in the majority — forced the 
French prisoners to sleep. 

Sometimes in the night the door of our apartment would 
be suddenly opened, and amid the hurricane of volubility 
that always accompanies French transactions, a prisoner 
would be fired in amongst us and the door slammed to. 
His first act, on finding himself in the dark, would be to 
pound and kick on the door, calling the guard outside all 
sorts of pet names. After they had stood all they wanted 
of that, the little wicket would be shut back with a crack 
like a rifle, and the old grizzled villain, who seemed to be 
on duty all the time, would hold an extremely animated 
conversation with the prisoner for about two seconds, when 
bang the wicket would go shut again. Or if, as was fre- 
quently the case, the unfortunate demanded water, he would 
come back again in a minute, open the wicket, and when 
the fellow inside stepped up to get his water, would give it 
to him right in the face, caUing forth more Gallic profanity. 

After a while this prisoner would calm down a bit and 
begin to feel about for a place to sleep. During all this 
time we would remain perfectly quiet ; but we would have 
our legs pulled up, so he could find a place to lie down 
across the foot of the bed. This he would always do. I 
never knew one of them to fail in that respect. Then we 



332 ON MANY SEAS 

would wait until he began to snore, when, all together, we 
would straighten out our legs, and Johnny Crapaud would 
slide off into the little alley-way at the foot of the divan, 
— more variegated French blasphemy. 

Madame John, our landlady, was too well pleased to have 
the state board us to pay our fines and get us out before she 
had a ship for us ; besides, if she did, we would very likely 
get nabbed again, necessitating another payment. But the 
second day of our incarceration, Annie John, her daughter, 
came down and took George out ; and the last I ever saw 
of him was when he went through the door. 

"I would take you out, too, Beel," said she, "but I got 
no more money now. I guess I goin' git you out to- 
rn orrer." 

To-morrow ! I stayed there three weeks. I became the 
father, the patron saint, of the blasted "Jug." Even old 
Bonaparte out in the guard-room got so that he treated me 
with half-way decency, as a tribute to my long and faithful 
service. Finally, one day, after I had about made up my 
mind that I was to become a second edition of the Man 
with the Iron Mask, Annie John came down and took 
me out. I knew, of course, they had got a ship for me ; 
and I soon found that there was but one other sailor in 
Havre, — old Jack Thompson, — and he was shipped. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

Madame John as a Shipping Agent. — The German Cap- 
tain. — Suicide at Sea. — An Old Acquaintance. 

When we got to the house, Madame John was profuse in 
her apologies for having allowed me to stay so long in re- 
tirement. She had been so poor. She had been obliged 
to pawn her wedding-ring at last to get me out at all. 

"That's all right," said I. " I suppose you've got a ship 
for me." 

" I geet you a goot sheep, Beel — a fine sheep — in a few 
days." 

After she left the room, old Jack told me I was already 
shipped in a German bark, bound for Sandy Hook for 
orders. She had shipped a Russian Finn in the bark, and 
afterwards sent him somewhere else ; and as old Jack re- 
fused to go, and there being nobody else in Havre, she was 
at last obliged to take me out of Hmbo to fill the bill. 
I was not very eager about going to Sandy Hook ; for it was 
more than probable the bark would get orders for New York, 
and I was in no shape to go home after all these years at 
sea. However, I remembered that Lynch had a score to 
settle with me, and I could escape his clutches by going in 
the Dutchman ; and besides, even if she did go to New 
York, I needn't go home. So when madame came in again, 
I asked her about the German bark, and she admitted that 
she would be obliged if I would take the berth ; and I 

333 



334 ON MANY SEAS 

agreed. But I soon found that the other inmates of the 
house had stolen all my clothes. However, Madame John 
had lots of second-hand clothes, and she made me up a 
pretty decent outfit ; and the next day I boarded the bark 
and went to sea. 

When the crew were mustered, there was one name to 
which nobody answered. The captain asked me what my 
name was, and I told him, so he said he would scratch off 
the other and I could sign in that place ; but I declined. I 
told him I had received no advance wages, that I didn't 
belong to his crew, that I was an American citizen, and 
demanded to be put ashore. But he said he couldn't put 
into port just to land me, and I would have to stay aboard 
until we got across. I submitted, of course, but under 
protest. 

When off the Western Islands, there was a great hubbub 
on deck one day just after twelve o'clock. All hands started 
running aft, and jabbering away like a colony of monkeys. 
I asked the fellow alongside of me what the row was about, 
and he told me, with his eyes as big as saucers : 

" Der captine shut 'emzelluf, shut 'emzelluf mit a re- 
volver !" 

So we all went aft, and piled down into the cabin, and 
there he lay flat on his back, with a thirty-two cahbre bullet 
hole clean through his head, and the handsome ivory-handled 
and silver-plated and engraved Colt's "Navy" alongside of 
him, where it had dropped from his hand. There were 
little fine spatters of blood on the mirror, showing that he 
had stood in front of the glass, and then taken a good aim 
at the centre of his forehead ; and the ball, after crashing 
through his skull, had indented the panel of one of the car- 
lines, and dropped on deck, rolling into a lee corner, where 
we found it all battered out of shape by the resistance it had 
met in passing through his head. 



SUICIDE AT SEA 335 

Nobody heard the shot fired, although it was just after 
dinner, when every one was awake. But the mate, coming 
down to get a cigar, saw a black sluggish stream oozing 
slowly from under the door of his stateroom. If she had 
been on the other tack, he might have lain there many hours 
before being discovered. 

All hands stood around the body of the suicide for a while 
in awe-stricken silence, and then quietly withdrew, wondering 
what could have caused a young man, master of a fine ves- 
sel, in the employ of a big German corporation, to take his 
own life. He was left where he lay until after dark, when 
he was carried out into the forward cabin, a sort of vestibule, 
to be sewn up. 

The sailraaker asked for a helper, and as none of the Ger- 
mans cared to have anything to do with the job, I volunteered. 
It had come on to blow a bit, and the weather looked rather 
squally, with an occasional glimmer of hghtning to wind- 
ward. We laid the piece of old canvas that was to be his 
winding-sheet down in the middle of the room, and lifted 
him on to it. He had on four woollen shirts, a knitted 
guernsey, and a thick pilot-cloth vest and pants, and they 
were all saturated with blood. We turned the sides of the 
canvas up, and ran a seam down in front, and then setting 
the lantern on his breast, I, who was at his head and 
to windward, turned the flap up over his face and stitched 
it down, while the sailmaker did the same at his feet to 
leeward. 

Having stitched the flaps down all round, I said to the 
sailmaker, " I'll just take a final stitch through the end of 
his nose. Sails, and then I'm done." 

" No, don't do dat," said the sailmaker, and as he glanced 
up I saw by the light of the lantern that he looked white and 
nervous. " Why certainly," said I, " he'll feel slighted if we 
omit the final stitch" ; and as I said it I jabbed the needle 



336 ON MANY SEAS 

Stoutly through his nasal organ, and at the same instant 
there came a crashing peal of thunder. 

The little forward cabin was brilliantly illuminated for an 
instant with the spectral bluish light of electricity, and at 
the same time the squall struck the bark, and she heeled 
away over. The deck under the body was shppery with 
blood, and away we went all together down to leeward. 
The lantern upset and went out, and we were all in a heap. 

" Sails " was the first to extricate himself, and, rushing 
wildly out on deck, he screamed : 

" Der captain ish nicht dode ! Der captain ish nicht 
dode ! " 

The crew were busy getting in the light sails. Sheets and 
halyards were flying, and canvas flapping and banging in 
the darkness aloft. Sailors were singing out on cle\ylines 
and buntlines. The wind was roaring through the rigging, 
and there was an almost continual broadside of celestial artil- 
lery. But through and above all the pandemonium could 
distinctly be heard the frenzied shrieks of the half-crazed 
sailmaker, as he rushed aft and harangued the mate in low 
Dutch, who looked at him stolidly for a moment, as he puffed 
at his cigar, and then walked aft to see how she headed. 

After we got the sail in, and everything snug, and not 
before, another lantern was lighted, and a committee of all 
hands went peering cautiously into the forward cabin to see 
what the old man was up to. There he lay as stiff and 
straight and quiet and dead as anybody could desire ; but, 
to prevent him sliding around and mussing up the deck, a 
reef earing was brought and tied around his neck, and he 
was dragged up into a half-reclining position and fastened 
to a door-knob. 

Verily it was a case of " dead lion," — the captain of yes- 
terday, whose slightest word was absolute law, tied by the 
neck to-night, with a reef earing, to the door-knob of his 



SUICIDE AT SEA 337 

own cabin. Such is destiny ! He hung there until the next 
afternoon, when we buried him. 

The carpenter sawed off two pieces of board about eight 
feet long and nailed a batten across each end, thereby form- 
ing a rough substitute for a grating. The remains were 
brought out and laid on it. The carpenter and sailmaker 
took up the head, and a couple of sailors the feet, and the 
sailors laid their end on the lee rail. 

The carpenter took off his hat and looked into it. All 
hands stood around in silence. The mate stood on the 
main hatch puffing away at his cigar. The bark was shp- 
ping along at an eight-knot gait, with the wind a point abaft 
the beam. Everybody was waiting for the mate to perform 
the funeral ceremonies, and he, apparently, was waiting for 
everybody else ; for after a couple of minutes of silent 
expectancy, he looked at the carpenter and said, "Veil?" 
The carpenter put on his hat, spoke to the sailmaker, and 
they raised the head of the board as high as they could, but 
the body refused to shde off it. So they walked towards 
the rail shoving it ahead of them, and, finally, dumped the 
whole business overboard altogether. 

The main topsail was not even backed, and the captain's 
funeral ended then and there, and each one went about 
whatever job he had on hand. 

When we arrived at Sandy Hook we got orders to proceed 
to Philadelphia, and on the way up the river, as I was at 
the wheel, the mate said to me : "I suppose you will leave 
us here?" I told him yes, and reminded him that I 
expected to be paid for my services. But although he 
acknowledged that he knew I had entered a protest on 
leaving Havre, and demanded to be set ashore, still, he 
said, the ship had paid for a man, and couldn't afford to 
pay it over again. So when I got ashore I went to see a 
lawyer, and happened to have the good luck to strike the 



338 ON MANY SEAS 

right one the first thing. He made the ship pay me my 
wages, and I was able to fit for sea in fairly good shape. 

I stayed a couple of weeks in Philadelphia — the most 
deuced slow place I ever got into. 

I heard that there was a Portland brigantine bound for 
Antwerp, with oil, so I went down and had a look at her. 
I rather liked her appearance ; and hearing that the captain 
wouldn't have anything but Dutchmen, I went aboard and 
introduced myself as Yan Yansen, a Dane, and he shipped 
me. This captain, whom I will call Tibbetts, was a thorough 
" dyed-in-the-wool " Yankee. He didn't know that there was 
anything else in the world but the almighty dollar. He could 
not, nor did he wish to, see anything beyond its circumfer- 
ence, and by it all his hopes, fears, and aspirations were cir- 
cumscribed. 

The mate was a great, long, round-shouldered, hook-nosed 
old fellow from Baltimore. The "second " was the captain's 
foster-brother, — a big, awkward, ungainly young cub, as igno- 
rant as a mule, and as dumb as an off ox. When it was 
time to go aboard, I hired Tom Nixon, who had been mate 
and part owner in iht James L. Baker, and abused me like 
a stepfather, years before, to take my dunnage down to the 
dock for a quarter. He didn't look now much like a 
chief oi^cer and part owner. He had an old shark-bait 
hitched into a vehicle which suggested the conundrum : 
" Will it last till we get there ? " Tom was now doing odd 
jobs for a quarter or fifty cents. I knew him instantly, but 
he did not know me, and I did not bother to renew the 
acquaintance. 

The brig was brand-new, a stanch little hooker, and a 
good sailer. She was built by her captain and owner, and 
built just as he wanted her. 

We made a fair passage to Antwerp, discharged our cargo, 
and took ballast from there to Glasgow, where we loaded iron 
raibvay ties and sleepers for Rosario on the Rio de la Plata. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

A Sea Lawyer. — Dutch Jake goes down. — I become 
Second Mate. — A Good Sailor. — A Turn of Home- 
sickness. 

Having arrived in Rosario without any incident worthy 
of note, we anchored alongside a vertical cliff as high as 
the brig's trucks. We had to discharge our cargo here, 
so we dropped our starboard-bow anchor into the deep 
river, and, running a line from the port bow, we breasted 
her over towards the shore, slacking on the anchor-chain as 
we hove in on the line. 

When we got her in position, it became necessary to moor 
her stern, so that she would lie steady. So we took the boat 
under the bow, lowered the other anchor down until its ring 
was level with the boat's stern, and lashed it fast to her. 
Then they slacked away on deck until she had the weight of 
it, and we pulled thirty fathoms of chain into the boat. The 
chain was then unshackled on deck, and we proceeded round 
to the stern, and gave them up the end on the starboard 
quarter. 

The old man now told the second mate, who had charge 
of the boat, to pull away broad on the quarter, paying out 
chain carefully as he went, and drop the anchor as far out 
in the stream as possible. 

So we started, and the mate took long Dutch Jake to help 
him check the chain. 

339 



340 ON MANY SEAS 

We hadn't got half a dozen boat-lengths from the stern 
before it was easy to see that they would never be able to 
hold the chain, for of course the bight of it sagged away 
down in the water ; and I told the second mate he had better 
stand clear of it, as it was liable to take a run any minute. 

" You shet up yer d head ; I'll attend ter this chain," 

said he, and just as he said that, it got away from them. 
Zip ! zip ! it went out of the boat. I yelled to the others 
to look out and not get caught in it, and dropped my oar 
and jumped for the anchor lashing. But my knife was dull 
and there were a good many turns of the rope. So the first 
thing I knew, the chain had all gone out of the boat, and 
as it fetched up with a snap on the anchor her stern went 
under. 

I knew Dutch Jake couldn't swim, and I didn't know how 
many of the others could, so I breached out of her as fast as 
possible, and took two or three vigorous strokes, before I 
ventured to look back. When I did, I saw all hands swim- 
ming, except Jake. The boat's nose was about a foot out of 
water, sticking straight up in the air, and he stood on the 
very tip-top point of it, yelUng like a Comanche, as it slowly 
settled under him. Down it went, till Jake's chin was at the 
level of the muddy water, when, with one despairing cry, he 
made a desperate, but feeble, jump upwards, and then sank 
out of sight. 

The old man and the mate stood looking on, not thirty 
feet away, not knowing what to do. As they had no other 
boat, they could render no assistance. Finally the mate 
commenced to heave things overboard to us, to catch hold 
of, and an Italian bark sent a rescuing party after us in a 
little dingy that she had towing astern. I was the first one 
they came to, but I told them, in Spanish, to go after Jake, 
as he couldn't swim. He had come to the surface again, 
and was splashing and spluttering like a right whale on a 



BECOME SECOND MATE 34 1 

sand-bar. So they got him first, and then gathered in the 
rest of us, and took us aboard. 

The old man was so pleased to think that none of us 
were drowned that he told the Italian mate he was 
" obleeged " to him. 

We now had to get tackles on the chain, and heave the 
anchor up again. Of course, it brought the boat with it, 
which wasn't hurt any ; and then, to prevent further acci- 
dents, the old man dropped the brig herself out in the 
stream, and dropped the anchor from her quarter. 

All this was a very convincing illustration of the old saying, 
"The more haste, the less speed." 

After the cargo was out, we all got a little money and 
liberty. The old mate, who had had several jawing 
matches with the captain lately, did not come back, so the 
second mate was promoted to be mate while Jake was made 
second mate. But Jake was not a success as an ofificer, for 
he hobnobbed with the crew, went ashore with them at 
night, and allowed them to call him Jake, and say " yes " 
and "no," and do pretty much as they liked. So after about 
a month of this kind of thing the old man told him he had 
better take his clothes-bag forward again, and promoted me 
to the vacancy. 

Finding myself thus unexpectedly transplanted aft, and 
seeing that there was nothing in the position that I was not 
perfectly familiar with, I began to think what an infernal jay 
I had been to go before the mast all these years, and allow 
Dutch and Irish mates to bulldoze me in my own country's 
ships ; and I swore by the main boom that I would never 
earn another dollar before the mast. And I never have. 

I took good care not to make the same mistake that 
Jake did ; and though I did not put on many frills, I gave 
the men to understand that when they spoke to me they 
must say "Mister," and "sir"; and when I said "Go," go 



342 ON MANY SEAS 

it was, and no growling. Jake remarked one day that I 
was getting mighty stiff since I went aft ; but I shut him up 
most effectually, and that was the last I heard of that. 

The old man sold me an old ebony quadrant ; and I 
borrowed his " Bowditch " and " Nautical Almanac," and 
began to study navigation. I made two discoveries right 
away : first, that navigation was not nearly as mysterious 
as I had always supposed ; and second, that I had nearly 
forgotten all of my arithmetic. I soon brushed that up, 
however, and it was only a short time before the old man 
began to say, " I dunno," to my innumerable questions. 
I then made another discovery, which was that navigation 
practised aboard the brig was a very rudimentary science. 
I have since found that the brig was not by any means an 
exceptional case in this respect. 

Naturally I felt no little pride when I found myself in 
sole charge. During my watch at night I would sometimes 
sit on the weather rail, and glance aloft at the swaying spars, 
and then down at the stanch little hooker under them, and 
think to myself that, for the time being at any rate, and as 
long as the old man stayed below, I was monarch of all I 
surveyed. 

She was a smart httle sailer, but the old man was very 
careful of her. He had nearly made his pile once, and lost 
it again, in a furniture store which he bought in Portland. 
So he had drummed up all the influence he could get, and 
built this little vessel to retrieve his fortunes in. 

But I always wanted to see her go ; and one night in the 
middle watch I had my chance. When I came on deck 
the wind was a couple of points abaft the starboard beam, 
and was just a nice, stiff, whole-sail breeze. She was can- 
tering along about ten knots, and the mate told me that if it 
freshened any, I had better take in the jib topsail and call 
the old man. 



BECOME SECOND MATE 343 

That was all right, but I had travelled more miles at sea 
than he had fathoms, and I made up my mind that if the 
old man would only stay below, and Boreas would puff his 
cheeks, I'd see what was in her before eight bells was struck 
again ; and I did, too. 

The breeze gradually freshened, but blew nice and steady, 
no puffs or jerks about it. The sea remained within due 
bounds. The night was as bright and beautiful as ever 
shone on land or sea. There was no moon, but the stars 
twinkled like millions of diamonds. Not even a light, 
fleecy cloud was to be seen, and how she did swing along, 
as steady as a church and as fleet as a deer. She steered 
beautifully, and I could see her broad white wake astern as 
straight as a Hne. Oh ! how proud and how grand I felt ; 
I wouldn't have shaken hands with any lesser nautical light 
than " Old Samuels," ^ just at that moment, and I imagined 
that I knew how he felt when he was driving the Dread- 
naught for the Western Islands, with the Alabama in hot 
pursuit. 

"See how she buries that lee cathead; 
Hold on, good Yankee pine " — 

says the song ; and I felt like shouting the words out to 
the gallant little brig, who was doing herself proud that 
night. 

I took a walk around, once in a while, and looked at the 
sails and gear. The big jib topsail was pulling Hke a 
thousand elephants ; it's sheet was like a bar of steel, but I 
knew that everything about her was new and strong, and I 
was bound that for once she should go ; and go she did. 
There came a time, at about three o'clock, when even I had 
wind enough for the sail I was carrying, and I had about 

1 Captain Samuels, of the Dreadnaicgkt, one of the most famous of 
American clipper captains. 



344 ON MANY SEAS 

made up my mind that I would take in the jib topsail, when 
I heard a voice say quietly, right behind me : 

" What ye trying ter do? " 

I turned; and there stood the old man in his shirt and 
drawers. 

Ignoring his question, I remarked that it was a fine night. 

" Yes," said he, " the night's all right ; " and as he looked 
over the side, I added : 

" The Boston girls have got our tow-line now all right, 
sir; she must be reeling off about twelve." 

" Nigher fourteen," said the old man. " Is the jib top- 
sail on her yet?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" Better git it in, or you won't have any." 

I heard him tell another captain afterwards in Boston, 
how he had got fifteen knots out of her, on the passage 
home. 

Our provisions began to run low again, and the old man 
put into that universal marine junk-shop, St. Thomas, for 
more grub. 

St. Thomas seems to have become, by mutual consent of 
all concerned, just what I have called it, a marine junk- 
shop. Here derelicts, wrecks, and all sorts of unseaworthy 
hulks, seem to arrive, as though it was the gateway to the 
" hereafter" of ships. Here they are condemned and sold 
for what they will bring, so that almost anything in the 
marine line can be got here at a bargain. 

Before we got to Boston, we had eaten up the few rations 
the old man had bought in St. Thomas with his usual econ- 
omy, and had to put in to Vineyard Haven for supplies 
enough to take us through. We did, however, reach Boston 
at last ; and when I found myself so near home and fairly 
well-heeled financially, I began to have a longing to see my 
father once more, if he was still alive. Of course, the crew 



BECOME SECOND MATE 345 

all left, and the next day after in an angry discussion with 
the old man, I told him I guessed I would take my pay and 
go home too. 

"Yes," said he; "I guess you'd better. I've been mis- 
taken in you. You ain't the man I thought you was. Go 
up to the shipping office and get your money as soon as you 
like." 

So here I was at last, in reahty " homeward bound," — 
and just as I had always intended to be some time, with a 
pocketful of money. Now I would not be ashamed to face 
anybody. I was also an officer. Not a very high one to 
be sure, but still I was out of the forecastle, and bound to 
remain out of it. How many times during the past ten 
years had I roared out the chorus, in many a foreign port 
when heaving the anchor, " Hooraw, me boys, we're home- 
ward bound." And yet, this was my first home-coming. 

Of course I did a lot of thinking. Would father be alive 
yet? That was my principal worry. I had only heard from 
him once while away, and that was about nine years ago, in 
Melbourne ; and a great many things can happen in ten 
years. 



CHAPTER XL 

New York at Last. — A Fatherly Welcome. — To Sea 
Again. — Fore and Aft Seamanship. 

I WAS now travelling on part of the identical route I had 
gone over with my father when I was a little fellow, and he 
first took me to New York ; and it brought back many 
memories. I cannot say that I regretted having gone to 
sea, and wasted so many years of my life in cruising about 
the world to no purpose, for as yet I had only come in con- 
tact with sailors like myself, who had no object in view other 
than to make a voyage, spend their money, and ship again 
for anywhere. 

When we got to Fall River, I boarded the boat, ate my 
supper, and turned in and slept as calmly as if I had been 
off watch abreast the Horn. The next morning we were 
alongside the wharf, and, as I didn't know where to go, I 
took a cab and went to the Cherry Street Sailor's Home. 
I then went out to hunt up my father. 

When I left New York he had a small shop down near 
Roosevelt Street, on South, so down there I went ; but the 
place was occupied by another business. I didn't know 
what to do. Finally I tackled a gentleman on the sidewalk, 
and explained my dilemma to him. 

He advised me to look in the directory. So I entered an 
office and asked permission to look in their directory, which 
was readily granted ; when I had hunted up the firm's new 

346 



YANKEE SCHOONERS 34/ 

address, I found that my father was in charge of the 
Brooklyn end of the business, so I telegraphed to him and 
made my way over to him. 

I found him waiting for me in his office, and I was sur- 
prised and pleased to see how little he had aged in ten 
years ; and how he laughed when I told him I feared he 
might be dead. 

" Why," said he, " people don't grow old and die in ten 
years." 

I stayed with father that day and went with him in his 
buggy to his house, a Httle way out on Long Island. He 
had built himself a handsome house, some five years before, 
and there I was introduced to a young lady cousin from 
Portland, who was visiting. I had never seen her before, 
and was charmed, for of course I had grown up entirely 
ignorant of ladies' society. My stepmother seemed pleased 
to see me, and as I was now a man, I had resolved to forget 
all my boyish animosities towards her, so we got along very 
well together. 

I had considerable money left, and put in a good deal of 
my time escorting my cousin about, and enjoyed myself 
hugely. But of course this kind of thing, while it was, as 
the Frenchman said, " veree nice and veree pleasant," could 
not last for ever. I told my father of my promotion, and 
showed him my discharge to prove it. 

" Why, that's not you ; that's John Johnson's discharge." 

But I explained to him how that came about, and also 
how it was that when his partner was in San Francisco 
and telegraphed to every United States Consul, from Cape 
Horn to 'Frisco, that he was unable to get track of me, 
because I had never sailed under my own name out there. 

There was a three-masted schooner called the William L. 
Bradley lying in the Atlantic dock and bound for Glouces- 
ter, England. Father had done some work on her, and in 



348 ON MANY SEAS 

conversation with the captain had spoken of me ; and the 
captain said he would Uke to have me go with him. So I 
went down to see him one day. I found him to be a tall, 
very good-looking man, black whiskers, and bright black 
eyes. I soon found he was very much like the captain I 
had just left, only more so if anything. He had the keen, 
Yankee skipper way with him. Having succeeded in busi- 
ness, I suppose he was entitled to approve of himself; and 
he most certainly did. 

I found out afterwards, that every time he left port he 
had to get out his books and study up before taking his first 
observation of the sun's altitude, and as for correcting the 
declination, that was entirely beyond him; he always got 
his declination from the mate. 

He had saved his money and worked hard for what he 
had, and his share in the schooner — a very fine vessel 
of her class — was all that he had in the world. He had 
never been anywhere except to the West Indies, and now 
that he was going across the pond, he wanted all the expe- 
rienced help he could get. He asked me if I had ever been 
in the Irish Channel, and I told him I had. He then got 
out his chart and commenced to catechise me on the lights. 

I told him nobody knew the lights by heart unless it was 
a coaster or Channel pilot. But he said he was going to get 
a mate who knew them. 

However, I was not applying for a mate's berth yet. I 
was willing to make another voyage as second mate. He 
said his owners didn't allow him to " kerry " a second mate, 
but if I would ship before the mast, he would give me five 
dollars a month, out of his own pocket, to stand his watch. 
I didn't exactly care about a schooner, nor about doing busi- 
ness that way, but my money was getting low, and second 
mates were more abundant than ships in New York, so I 
agreed to it, and went aboard. 



YANKEE SCHOONERS 349 

A few days after that the mate came aboard, — a tall, 
finely built, and handsome young man, a German by birth, 
although he spoke English with less accent than any Ger- 
man I ever saw. Mr. Smith and I became firm friends at 
once, and remained so to the end of the voyage. 

After the schooner was loaded with wheat, the crew came 
aboard — three men — and we towed over to the Jersey flats 
and anchored, while the old man went ashore to clear. I 
had been living aft all this time, but when he came aboard 
he told me that in order to avoid any dissatisfaction among 
the crew as to going to sea shorthanded, I had better move 
my things forward. This I flatly refused to do, telling him 
that if I was to have charge of his watch I must live aft, and 
as far as any dissatisfaction of the crew was concerned, I 
believed that Mr. Smith and I would be able to attend to all 
that ; to which Mr. Smith cheerfully assented. So it was 
finally agreed that I should remain aft. 

Nothing worthy of note occurred on the passage over. 
As I had only one man in my watch, of course I had to 
stand wheels and lookouts the same as the other men. The 
old man was very timid about entering the Channel, but Mr. 
Smith and I braced him up as much as we could, and after 
he once got a sight of Cape Clear he felt a good deal easier. 

At that time there had been but a very few American 
schooners across the Atlantic, so that our rig created quite 
a sensation in the Bristol Channel ; and as we had to beat 
up against a head wind, our pilot went into ecstasies over 
the square corners cut by the big Yankee schooner in tack- 
ing. And it was a fact that we went to windward of the whole 
fleet, as if we had been a steamer ; for, while the old top- 
sail schooners, brigs and barks would be flapping around in 
stays, we would be off on the other tack, and away with a 
good full, scooting to windward like a gallied whale. 

The most interesting part of the whole voyage, to me, 



350 ON MANY SEAS 

was towing up the Gloucester canal. Here I had a splendid 
chance to see rural England, and I was greatly surprised to 
see what a beautiful country it is. Although it was nothing 
but farm land, yet it was entirely different from farming 
country in America, resembling more nearly a continuous 
park. It looked to me as though, on account of the great 
age of the country, and the limited amount of real estate in 
comparison to the population, every blade of grass had been 
counted and cared for. It certainly was the most beautiful 
stretch of country I have ever seen. 

But what a contrast were the people to the land they live 
in ! I never thoroughly appreciated the meaning of the 
words, boor, chaw-bacon, clod-hopper, until I saw these 
Gloucestershire Britons. They did seem to be the least in- 
telligent white men I had ever seen. All their ideas, tastes, 
and ambitions seemed, by contrast with the country, to be 
low and brutish, and their language was about as intelligible 
as Choctaw. 

Well, we finally arrived at the little ancient city of 
Gloucester, and it took about three weeks to get the cargo 
out of her, working two hatches at a time. A gang of 
men went down in the hold, with half-bushel measures and 
wooden scoops, and filled the grain into two-bushel bags, 
which were then hove up, slowly and laboriously, by hand 
winches — not even a hoisting horse did these antediluvians 
use. I don't believe that Noah had any more primitive 
means for discharging the Ark on Mount Ararat. 

I was much interested in travelling about the old place on 
Sundays. There was a cathedral there, built I don't know 
how many hundred years before America was discovered, 
and still in use. I was told that the stone of which it was 
built was brought a long way over the hills, on men's shoul- 
ders, so long ago that the wages were only a penny a day. 
No wonder they could build cathedrals. 



YANKEE SCHOONERS 35 I 

Well, after the Johnny Bulls had hunted out the last 
grain of wheat from peak and run, we left Gloucester, and 
went across to Cardiff, in Wales, and got a load of coal 
for Havana. 

One of our men ran away here, and the old man shipped 
a Maltese named Charley in his place. Charley fell to me, 
my watchmate having been the one to desert. I didn't like 
the looks of him at all. He had that treacherous snaky look, 
characteristic of all these Mediterranean nations, known to 
Yankee sailors by the generic name of Dago. However, as 
long as he behaved, I used him well, but I didn't trust him. 

When we left Cardiff, we struck right into a spanking fair 
wind the first thing, and bowled along down channel, wing 
and wing, or, as sailors sometimes say, " with her book 
open"; for the two great fore and aft sails, with booms 
swung away out on each side, looked at a distance exactly 
like an open book. 

When I came on deck to relieve the mate, at twelve 
o'clock at night, she was still bowling along down channel, 
dead before it, and I told him I didn't hke the looks of 
things for a cent. The wind was now blowing half a gale. 
She was still wing and wing, and if my Dago on the lookout 
should report a light dead ahead, I wouldn't dare to budge 
from my course, for if I did the big mizzen would jibe with 
force enough probably to take the mast out of her. 

" Well," said he, " you'll have to do the best you can, 
that's all I know. D a schooner, anyway." 

To which latter sentiment I breathed a fervent Amen. 

So I stood at the wheel, and steered and fumed, expect- 
ing every minute to hear the dreaded report from forward, 
" Light dead ahead ! " for the Channel was full of all sorts of 
craft beating up. At last I could stand it no longer, and I 
kicked on the cabin. The old man came up and wanted to 
know what was the matter. I told him I wished he would 



352 ON MANY SEAS 

get the watch out, and jibe the schooner, so I could handle 
her ; " for," said I, " we are liable at any minute to go 
plump into somebody, and if we do, we will take our cargo 
of coal to Davy Jones, in short order." 

" Oh, no," said he, " they won't let us run into 'em, 
they'll git outer the way ; they don't wanter git run into no 
more'n we do." 

In vain I explained to him that they, being close hauled, 
had no right to " git outer the way " • for if they undertook 
to do so, and then got hit, they would lose their insurance. 
But he pooh poohed my fears and went below. 

Again and again I d — d not only the schooner, but also 
her dunder-headed captain, who didn't know enough to 
know when he really was in danger. 

It wasn't twenty minutes after this before we ran across 
the stern of an old square-rigged brig hke a whirlwind. 
Five seconds' sooner and we would have gone clean over her. 
That settled it ; I kicked on the cabin, and brought the old 
man out again, and this time I told him very emphatically, 
that if he didn't jibe her he might expect to find the mizzen- 
mast towing alongside at any moment ; " for," said I, " I'm 
not going to the bottom in this blasted schooner, just for 
the sake of saving her spars." 

I said so much, and kicked so hard, that finally he con- 
sented to call the watch and jibe. So he got them out, and 
got a watch-tackle on the main sheet, and bowsed it in as 
short as they could get it ; and he stood alongside of me 
waiting for a lull in the breeze to jibe it over. By and bye, 
when he fancied the wind had hghtened a bit, he said, 
" Let her come to now, easy. Be almighty careful or you'll 
have the mainmast out of her." 

I let her come to slowly, and just as the big sail began to 
lift, he yelled, " Ho ! keep her off; keep her off! " 

He jumped up, and hollered so you might have heard 



YANKEE SCHOONERS 353 

him half a mile to windward, hard as it was blowing. And 
I busted myself, heaving the wheel np to keep her off. 
Three times he did this, and, as I knew there were no lulls 
in that breeze, I made up my mind that she should come 
to next time, whether or no. So when he told me to luff 
again, I luffed, and when he began his war dance I pretended 
I couldn't get the wheel up, and he ran round to the lee 
side and grabbed the spokes to help me. But while pre- 
tending to be heaving up, I was all the time holding down, 
until I saw that she was bound to come to anyhow ; and 
then I let the wheel go, and the old man went sprawling 
away to leeward. The big mainsail gave one thunderous 
flap, the boom seemed to stand on end for a second, and 
bang she went over. 

By the Lord Harry, I was sure the whole business would 
go by the board ; but no, it was another case of " Hold on, 
good Yankee pine." 

The old man gathered himself up and came round to 
windward, took a look aloft and saw his mast still there, and 
then remarked : 

"There, d — — her j I've jibed her for ye; an' now I 
hope yer satisfied." 

I was. I could handle her now ; so he gave me a new 
course and went below, and I put in the rest of the watch, 
mentally cursing a rig that necessitated beating to leeward. 

2A 



CHAPTER XLI 

Subduing a Desperado. 

Dago Charley had been gradually increasing in inso- 
lence as the voyage progressed. He had learned that I 
was shipped as a foremast hand ; and he, on that account, 
didn't consider it worth his while to be over and above 
respectful in his demeanour. I had stood about all of his 
sneering looks that I cared to, and was on the watch for 
an open act of disrespect, when I was determined to bring 
him to his bearings. 

There was a small vane seized fast to the mizzen pale, 
schooner fashion, and one morning as I stood at the wheel 
I noticed that the lower seizing was adrift ; so I told him to 
take a piece of spun yarn and go up and make it fast. He 
lazily obeyed, and stayed up there until just before eight 
bells. When he came down I told him he had not done 
the job right. He surhly replied that he had made it fast 
just as it was before, and that was good enough ; and he 
started to go forward. 

" Hold on a bit," said I ; and, handing him a piece of 
yarn, I told him to go up again and make it fast right. It 
was his watch below now, and he hated to go, but was not 
ready just yet to refuse duty. So up he went, growling that 
he would make it fast just as it was and no more. 

" You seize that vane fast the way it was before, and don't 
give me any more of your lip about it," said I. 

354 



DAGO CHARLEY 355 

" You go to h ! You ain't no second mate, nor 

nothin' ; you ain't no more dan me," said he, as he slowly 
and unwillingly clambered aloft. 

" I'll attend to your case when you come down again," 
said I ; for I had made up my mind that the Dago needed 
a lesson. 

I had heard that a favourite story of his in the forecastle 
was about how he had knifed an English mate, and I knew 
well enough that he had an idea that I was afraid of him. 
This hallucination it was necessary to correct, and the 
opportunity had now arrived. But I didn't intend to set 
myself up as a target for any of his Dago knife-practice. 
So while he was aloft I went below. I had two revolvers, — 
one big Colt's "Navy," and one small English pocket pistol. 
At first I thought I would take the small one ; but I reflected 
that if he didn't scare, and it came to an actual life-and- 
death fight, I would not be very well heeled. 

So I got out the big "thirty-two," loaded it carefully, and 
stuck it down in my pants behind my right hip, and went on 
deck. The captain and mate were eating dinner, but I said 
nothing to them. I went along forward, on the lee side, 
just abaft the forward house, where I knew he would come 
when he got down on deck. Presently I saw him coming, 
and when he caught sight of me, he dropped his eyes and 
came slouching along, glancing up occasionally under his 
brows. When he got within a dozen paces, I said : 

"Charley, you told me to go to h just now, didn't 

you?" 

I never saw such a lightning change come over a man 
in my life. Up went his head. His eyes glared Uke a wild 
beast's. His mouth stretched in a fiendish grin, and his 
wiry black moustache stuck straight out, as, whipping out 
his sheath- knife and brandishing it aloft, he came for me in 
leaps, shouting : 



356 ON MANY SEAS 

"Yes, you ! I keela you now." 

Before he had made three leaps in my direction, he was 
looking down the nickel-plated barrel of my colt, and under- 
went another lightning change. His hand dropped to his 
side, his jaw dropped, and his face turned a sickly greenish 
yellow, as he came to a dead stop. 

"Drop that knife," said I. But instead of doing so, he 
turned to windward and started to run round the deck- 
house. As he was about to pass the corner of the house, I 
fired over the main boom, and saw the dust ily out of the 
shoulder of his old blue shirt, as with a yell he disappeared. 
I started forward on the lee side to head him off, and we 
each turned the forward corner of the house together. I 
fired again, but missed, and he turned and ran aft, and I 
after him. I chased him twice round the house, getting one 
more shot, but without hitting, for he could run like a deer. 
By this time the old man and the mate had heard the fracas, 
and came rushing on deck ; and as Charley turned the cor- 
ner of the house on his third lap, sprinting like a thorough- 
bred, the mate met him and knocked him down with a 
handspike. 

My blood was up, and I jumped astride of him, and 
poked the muzzle of my gun in his ear, and if she had been 
a self-cocker, he would have most assuredly gone where all 
bad Dagos go. But before I could cock and fire, Mr. Smith 

pulled me off, saying, " Don't shoot the d fool, he 

ain't worth it." He began to rise, but I kicked him under 
the jaw and tumbled him over again, and then stood with 
one foot on his neck and the other on his wrist, while Mr. 
Smith got the knife away from him, and went down and got 
a pair of irons. 

All this time the old man was fluttering about, like a hen 
with her head off, asking what it was all about. 

I told him briefly how the Dago's continued insolence 



DAGO CHARLEY 357 

had finally culminated in an attempt to cut my liver out, 
and he wanted to know what we proposed to do with him. 

"Break his heart," said I, 

''Wal, ye know I'm marster here," said the old man, 
rather hesitatingly. 

" Well, do you want this cut-throat Dago let loose ? Be- 
cause if you do, say the word, and I'll let him up, but I'll 
shoot him before he can take one step," said I. 

"No, no ! no, no ! don't do that ! Put him in irons if ye 
want to, but don't you abuse him. Mind that ! I won't 
have nobody abused aboard o' my vessel." 

"All right, captain," said I. "I won't abuse him; but 
I'll either tame him or kill him before sundown." 

Mr. Smith now came along with the irons, and we flapped 
him over, and, pulling his arms round, ironed him with his 
hands behind his back ; and seeing his left sleeve soaked 
with blood, and his shirt torn on the shoulder, we cut it 
away to see if he was badly hurt, for he lay as if in a swoon. 

There was only a slight groove cut by my first shot, about 
four inches along the shoulder-blade. So we hunted him 
over for other wounds, but, not finding any, came to the 
conclusion that he was foxing, and I gave him a kick in the 
ribs and ordered him to get up ; but he never made a move, 
so I went to the side and drew a bucket of water. Mr. 
Smith turned him over on his back, and, holding the bucket 
up as high as I could, I poured it slowly in his face. 

That shut off his wind ; and when he had stood it as long 
as he could, he jerked himself erect like a suddenly released 
spring, and how he did rave ! 

I think it would have repaid any one to have learned the 
Maltese language just for the sake of understanding the re- 
marks that he made then. I know that they were lurid, 
and I dare say they were picturesque. Occasionally he 
would relapse into his pigeon Enghsh; and then I real- 



358 ON MANY SEAS 

ized that he was talking about me. We got a piece of 
hambroline, and passing it through the irons, led him to 
the weather-main rigging, and rove it through a spare hole 
in a fairleader, and triced him up until his heels were clear 
of the deck, his toes just touching. I didn't want to disable 
him, or I would have taken all his weight on the irons. 
Here he hung, cursing and howling, for about ten minutes ; 
then he changed his tune, and began to beg the captain to 
cut him down. 

I went up to him and said : " Charley, you needn't call on 
the captain, for nobody will cut you down until I do ; and 
that will be just as soon as you promise to behave yourself, 
and treat me with the respect that is due me as your supe- 
rior officer. Are you ready to do that now?" 

" Oh, I keela you ! Goda damma ! I keela you ! " 

"All right," said I. "I guess I can stand it as long as 
you can." And I walked away. 

Presently I noticed that he had stopped his noise, and, 
on inspection, I found that the hambroline had stretched 
enough to let his heels down on deck, so that he was com- 
paratively comfortable ; so I cast him adrift and dragged 
him over to the mizzen mast. The wind was light, and as 
she rolled along over the Atlantic swells, the big mizzen 
would swing to windward and then slat back to leeward with 
a wrench that would almost tear the sheet from the traveller. 
I passed the end of the rope through one of the hoops of 
the sail and hauled him up again. 

At the very next roll she lifted him off his feet and banged 
him against the mast, accompanied by a wild yell from him, 
as his arms were nearly wrenched from their sockets. I 
thought that would convince him of the futihty of holding 
out any longer ; so I offered to take him down again on the 
same terms as before. But he was as stubborn as a mule ; 
and while he felt around with his toes for the deck, he cursed 



DAGO CHARLEY 359 

and threatened me as furiously as ever. The old man now 
interfered. He said such treatment was barbarous, and he 
would not permit it. But Mr. Smith and I both told him 
that it lay in Charley's power to end it whenever he chose, 
by simply promising that he would do what every other man 
did. And we furthermore told him that if he insisted on 
stopping the punishment, we would both go to our rooms, 
and he could take the schooner to Havana himself, as we 
didn't consider our lives safe until the Dago was subdued. 

While we were talking, there was a sudden cessation of 
noise on the part of Charley ; and, glancing in his direction, 
we saw his head hanging down and his body swaying limply 
to the vessel's roll. 

" The man is dead. You've killed him. I know'd you'd 
do it," said the old man. And rushing over, he pulled out 
his knife and cut him down, and he fell in a heap on the 
deck. 

But he wasn't dead. He had only fainted. So we 
dragged him over to the lee scuppers, and sprinkled his 
face plentifully with salt water, which soon brought him 
to again. 

"Now, Charley," said the old man, "why don't you beg 
Mr. Williams's pardon, and go to work as you oughter? I 
never saw such works. I don't like it, and I won't hev it." 

"Oh, captain! Oh, captain!" was. all Charley had to 
say. I called the old man one side and told him if he 
would go below for a few minutes I would guarantee to get 
the required promise from Charley. 

"What ye goin' ter do ter him now?" he asked suspi- 
ciously. 

" Nothing. Only scare him a bit," said I. 

" Don't you torture him no more. You've done enough 
to him now. He'll be laid up all the rest of the passage. I 
never see nothin' like it, It's wuss'n a reg'lar packet-ship." 



360 ON MANY SEAS 

But I promised that not a hair of the Dago's head should 
be harmed, and that he should not lay up a minute. So I 
finally persuaded him to go below. Then I went over to 
where Mr. Smith was talking to Charley and advising him 
that nobody but I could save him from further punishment. 

" Well," said I, winking to Mr. Smith, " I guess he's able 
to go on with it again, ain't he? " 

"I guess so," said Mr. Smith; and I ordered Charley to 
get up ; but he was so stiff and sore, he couldn't do it with- 
out help. So I pulled him to his feet and we started 
towards the mizzen mast again. 

" Wha' you goin' do?" said he, the most abject terror 
depicted in every feature. 

" Trice you up again. What d'you suppose ? " 

" Oh, don' do dat ! don' do dat ! Please, Mr. Williams, 
don' do dat ! " 

" Well, are you ready to promise what I asked you to at 
first?" 

" Oh, yes, sir. I promise anytin', everytin'. I be good ; 
ony don' trice me up no more." 

" Will you turn to right away, and do your duty, and be 
respectful like the rest of the men?" 

" I can't turn to right away. I sick. I sore." 

" Oh, well, then, if you are too sick and sore to turn to, 
I might as well hang you up again for another half-hour. 
You deserve it, anyhow, for trying to knife me." 

" Oh, don', don' ! I turn to. I do anytin' ; ony don' 
hang me up no more." 

" You will turn to at eight bells ? " 

" Yes, sir." 

"All right." 

So I unlocked his shackles and dressed his wounded 
shoulder and sent him below, as / thought, fairly well 
broken in. But I never trusted him, and I never again 



DAGO CHARLEY 36 I 

came on the schooner's deck without my httle revolver 
loaded and in a handy pocket ; and when he came to re- 
lieve me at the wheel I never allowed him to get behind 
me, but always stepped aside and made him go in front of 
me to take hold of her. And on many a dark night as I 
stood there, I fancied I saw a dark shadow creeping along 
the lee gangway, and I would cock my little gun and have 
it ready for the sudden spring I expected at any moment. 

I got an old tin pan from the cook, and with some nails 
and sail twine I rigged a burglar alarm at my room door, so 
that it could not be opened more than an inch without the 
old pan coming clattering and banging down, hitting the 
side of my bunk, and roUing on the floor. I kept my lamp 
burning all night, and rigged a shade to it out of an old 
soup can, so that, while my bunk was in shadow, the light 
was concentrated full on the door ; and then, with my big 
Colt loaded and ready to my hand, I felt able to repel 
boarders, should the emergency arise. 

The first night after I rigged my alarm, when Mr. Smith 
came down to call me, as he opened the door there was a 
racket like an earthquake in a tin factory ; and he asked me 

what in h that was. I explained ; and he said, " Well, 

then, I'm d — d if I'm going to come in here to call you 
any more. You're liable to have the nightmare and get to 
dreaming that Charley is after you, and bore me full of holes 
by mistake. So after that he stayed outside and kicked on 
the door until I woke up. 

After that Charley's manner was almost suspiciously 
civil ; but I was careful neither to do or to say anything 
to invite him or to give him reason to suppose that I had 
not the most perfect faith in his reformation. 

I noticed that when he was on the lookout he never 
reported any lights, although I frequently saw them from 
the wheel. I didn't say anything to him about it, but 



362 ON MANY SEAS 

reported it to the mate. So one night, when we were on 
the Bahama banks, and he had seen several vessels' lights 
in the first watch, he said to me, " I'll stay on deck with you 
awhile and see if that Dago keeps a lookout." 

In about fifteen minutes he walked forward, and seeing 
nobody on the lookout, he looked down into the forecastle 
— she was a hurricane-decked vessel — and saw Charley 
sitting on a chest, filling his pipe, and talking to the watch 
below. 

"Who's on the lookout?" he asked. 

" I be," said Charley. 

" Well, that's a h of a place to keep lookout. What 

are you doing down there? Come up here, where you 
belong." 

" I come up so soon I Hght my pipe." And he leisurely 
filled and lighted his pipe, and then came up. 

The mate said he could hardly keep his hands off him, 
but he told him to keep a sharp lookout, as there were 
plenty of vessels about ; and then came aft and told me 
about it. 

He stood there by me, talking, for half an hour, when I 
asked him if that wasn't a light on the weather bow. He 
stepped out of the glare of the binnacle, and took a good 
look, and said it was. We then waited to hear from Charley, 
on the lookout, until the light was in such plain view that, 
as the saying goes, a blind man might have felt it with his 
stick. And then, as the mate could stand it no longer, he 
went down in the lazarette, and got an oak heaver about 
the size and shape of a policeman's night stick, and went 
forward. 

Charlie was sitting on the capstan head, facing to leeward, 
with his coat-collar turned up, both hands in his pockets, 
and a stream of fire from his pipe flying over the lee bow. 

" Don't you see that light? " asked the mate. 



DAGO CHARLEY 363 

" I no see nuttin," said Charley, without even turning his 
head. 

But I'll bet a leather fourpence that he saw a million stars 
right after that ; for, with all the power at his command, 
the mate brought the heaver down on top of his head, — 
once, twice, three times, — and then threw it overboard, 
thinking, as he afterwards told me, that he had certainly- 
killed him, and wishing to destroy the evidence. But so far 
from having killed him, he didn't even knock him off the 
capstan. 

Charley came racing aft, shouting, " Captain ! Captain ! 
Dey keela me ! Day keela me ! " 

The old man, hearing the ruction; breached up the com- 
panion-way ; and there stood Charley at the door, looking 
down at him, with his face all covered with blood. And 
he nearly scared the old man out of his wits. He said he 
thought we had been run into, 

A short explanation ensued, and, while the old man ob- 
jected to our methods of maintaining discipline, he was 
unable to suggest any better ; so he shaved and plastered 
and tied up Charley's head, and sent him back on the 
lookout to muse over the brutality of American mates, who 
wouldn't allow a poor fellow to defy their authority with 
impunity. 

A few days after this we arrived in Havana, and Charley 
demanded to see the consul, — a privilege which was at once 
granted, — and he, Mr. Smith, and the old man went ashore 
together. 

Charley stated to the consul his grievance, and I will do 
him the justice to say that he stated the case truthfully. 
When he got as far as where he told the mate he would 
come on deck as soon as he lit his pipe, the consul said : 

" Hold on ; I've heard enough. You told the mate you 
would come on deck as soon as you lit your pipe, hey? " 



364 ON MANY SEAS 

" Yes, sir." 

" Well, do you know what I would have done to you, if I 
had been the mate? " 

" No, sir." 

" I would have dragged you up out of that forecastle, and 
thrown you overboard. Now, you go back aboard of your 
vessel and go to work, and don't let me have any more 
complaints, or I'll use you worse than the mates have. And, 
Mr. Smith, don't fool with this fellow a bit. I see what he 
is. Don't put him in irons, — that would suit him too well, 
— but make him do his work that he is paid for, the same 
as the rest of the crew ; and don't be backward about using 
any means you see fit to accomplish that purpose." 

While they were ashore, I had been getting ready to dis- 
charge the coal. They got back at dinner time, and all 
during the meal the old man was worrying over Charley's 
case. He said he didn't believe we had got through with 
him yet, and he cautioned us not to abuse him. After 
dinner, Mr. Smith and I sat on top of the house, and smoked 
our pipes until one o'clock, when he told me to turn the men 
to, and get to work loading the lighter which lay alongside. 
I walked forward, and sung out " Turn to, there." Up 
came the two men belonging to the port watch, but no sign 
of Charley. I stepped to the rail and got a spare belaying 
pin, and peering down into the forecastle, I could dimly see 
him lying in his bunk. ''Come, turn to, there; do you 
hear? What's the matter with you?" 

" I can't turn to, sir. I sick." 

"You come up out o' that, or I'll make you sicker yet." 

No answer from Charley. I jumped down two steps at a 
time, and grabbed him by the collar, and yanked him out of 
his bunk. 

As he came floundering out on the deck, I saw he had his 
knife in his hand, and I gave him a sharp rap with the pin 



DAGO CHx\RLEY 365 

on the knuckles, which made him drop the knife and grab 
his fingers with the other hand. I then belted him freely 
on his sore head with the pin, reopening his wounds, and 
causing them to bleed nicely. Howling and cursing, he 
started up the ladder on a jump. 

When Mr. Smith saw me dive below, he came forward, 
and as Charley emerged from the scuttle, he received him 
with all the honours of war, punching and kicking him all 
the way down in the hold, where he bent himself on to a 
shovel, and commenced to fill a tub like a good fellow ; and 
that was the last trouble we had with him. 

Ever after that he was the first man to jump when an 
order was given, and was as civil and respectful as one could 
wish ; and the old man acknowledged that we seemed to 
have effected a cure, and said he wished we had been with 
him last voyage, when two Englishmen nearly took charge 
of her, doing about as they liked, and terrorizing him and 
an old Yankee mate. 



CHAPTER XLII 

An Invitation. — Hatteras Weather. — A Bargain with 
Dago Charley. — My Friend Mr. Smith. — A Mean 
Old Man. — A Wreck. 

While in Havana, I received a letter from a young lady- 
cousin, on my mother's side, which afforded me more 
pleasure, I think, than any occurrence in my whole life, up 
to that time. I had never known any of my mother's rela- 
tions, didn't even know that I had any ; but it seems that 
the remembrance of my father and myself had been kept 
green in my mother's family, and handed down by her 
brothers and sisters to their children, but for twenty-five 
years they had lost all trace of us, until this young lady, by 
a wonderfully roundabout means, discovered my address. 
She introduced herself and all the others to me in the letter, 
and urgently requested me to visit them on my return to the 
States, assuring me of a hearty welcome and a good time, 
as long as I cared to stay. 

I answered the letter at once, accepting the invitation, 
and thanking her most sincerely for her kind efforts in 
hunting me out. 

It was a very agreeable surprise to me to find that, though 
I had always regarded my father as almost my sole relative, 
I now had a whole raft of uncles, aunts, and cousins, all 
anxious to welcome me to their homes. And many a 
pleasant dream did I dream, and many a beautiful castle 
did I build, in the night watches on the passage home. 

366 



STRAITS OF SUNDA 367 

We got the usual gale off Hatteras, accompanied by such 
a display of celestial pyrotechnics as is entirely unknown 
to those who have never been down to the sea in ships. 
Where the fireballs hiss and whiz by your very ears, and 
strike the water with a great splash, and the zigzag flashes 
seem to be just above your head, and darting among the 
rigging. The almost continuous roar of the thunder is 
enough to start a butt, and the downpour of rain is like 
nothing less than a passage under Niagara itself, while the 
wind tears through the rigging like a charge of Hell's 
cavalry. Yes, there is some weather to be had off Hatteras. 

When we were paid, Mr. Smith and I called Charley to 
one side, and Mr. Smith said to him : " Well, Charley, I sup- 
pose you will have Mr. Williams and me arrested now, hey? " 

"Oh, I dunno," said he, avoiding our looks with his shifty 
snaky eyes. 

" Well, I know you will, but let me tell you something, if 
you do, we can easily settle it with your lawyer for ten dol- 
lars apiece, and you won't get anything. Now don't you 
think it would be better for you to deal directly with us, and 
so get whatever there is in it for yourself?" 

Yes, Charley thought that was good logic ; so, after a little 
haggling, he agreed to accept five dollars apiece from us, 
and a drink, and in return he signed an agreement certi- 
fying that all claims he had against us for damages were 
satisfied. 

We took him into a saloon, and of course he would not 
think of insulting two such fine gentlemen as we were by tak- 
ing anything less than fifteen-cent brandy, which was nothing 
but fusel oil, anyway. And so, declaring that he respected 
us more than any officers he had ever sailed under, the 
blasted hypocritical, lying Dago left us, and that was the 
last I saw of him ; sweet bad luck to him wherever he goes. 

Mr. Smith and I struck hands and parted, he to go to 



^68 ON MANY SEAS 

England and marry a young lady whom he met in Cardiff, 
and I to continue my peregrinations elsewhere ; and I wish 
to say right here, that of all the men I had ever associated 
with on board ship, up to that time, he was the one who had 
earned my greatest regard and most profound and endur- 
ing respect. I liked him thoroughly. I hked all his ways. 
He was a very highly educated young man, and assisted me 
greatly to understand some of the mysteries of navigation, 
which, until I met him, had baffled me completely. He 
was generous, without ostentation, a whole-souled, true- 
hearted, good friend and shipmate, as courageous as a lion, 
but not in the least overbearing. His bright, brown eyes 
looked at you as honestly as daylight. God bless him, and 
may his career be as successful as he himself could most 
fervently wish. 

Of course, I was crazy to go down east and visit my newly 
found cousins ; but father said he would like to go with me 
when I went, and not having received sufficient notice, his 
business was not in such shape that he could leave it just 
now, but if I would delay my visit until I had made another 
voyage, he would endeavour to be ready to go with me. To 
this I readily agreed, and, in order to have the next voyage 
over as soon as possible, I began to hunt for a ship right 
away. I had determined to promote myself another step, 
for I was now a better navigator than either of the captains 
I had sailed with as second mate, having familiarized my- 
self with " Sumner's Method," and learned to find my posi- 
tion by lunar distance. 

I had also fitted myself out, while in England, with a new 
sextant, and bought several charts and books, such as 
Rosser's " Stars, Lights and Tides of the World," Bow- 
ditch's "Navigator," and many others. In fact, I knew my- 
self to be not only competent, but also well equipped, to 
take a ship to any port in navigable waters, and as for 



STRAITS OF SUNDA 369 

seamanship — well, I certainly ought not to be deficient in 
that. 

So I resolved that when I went to sea again, it should be 
as first mate. I wasn't long in finding a berth. There was 
an old Bath bark called the Ellen Angeinan^ Captain Harry 
E. Stapleton, lymg on for Bristol. I had a talk with the 
captain, and convinced him that I was the man he was 
looking for, and he shipped me. 

This captain was a measly, long-legged, round-shouldered 
jay with a thin, stragghng red beard, which was Hke himself: 
too blasted mean to thrive. He was for ever parading his 
honesty and his smartness for my admiration, and they were 
both of a nature to call forth feelings of supreme contempt 
only. He had succeeded his brother in command of the 
bark. 

A younger brother of his, while acting as second mate on 
the previous voyage, had been killed by one of the forward 
hands, who was an old schoolmate of his, and whom he had 
driven to desperation by his insulting and abusive manner. 

They were within a couple of days' sail of Callao when 
they ran into a gale of wind, and had to reef her down. 
The young man went to the weather main topsail earing, 
and the second mate, seeing who was there, worked his way 
out on the yard, and, standing up, he hung on to the lift 
while he deliberately booted his old schoolmate in the face, 
cursing him all the time for not getting the dog's-ear up 
quick enough. 

After the sail was reefed, and the men lay down on deck 
again and manned the halyards, he resumed his abuse, kick- 
ing and thumping the young man, until, patience ceasing 
any longer to be a virtue, he drew his sheath-knife and with 
one slash disembowelled his tormentor. 

The body was picked up just as it was, in its oilskins, 
and laid on the bench in the carpenter's shop, and the 

2B 



3/0 ON MANY SEAS 

young fellow was ironed to it, one shackle on his and one 
on the dead man's hand, and locked in there all night while 
the gale raged without. 

Sometimes the men on watch would go to listen at the 
door, and fancy that they heard a moaning as of one in 
misery or terror, but the wind howled so that it was impos- 
sible to be sure, and the captain or mate, when they saw 
them loitering about the house, drove them away. 

The young fellow was left there all alone in the dark, with 
the bloody remains of his victim and his own thoughts for 
company. 

When morning came, they opened the door, expecting to 
find him, if not dead with fear, at least a gibbering maniac. 
Not at all ; he had pulled the corpse off the bench to the 
deck, and was himself stretched out on it, calmly sleeping 
the sleep of the avenger. 

We went under the elevator and filled the lower hold with 
bulk grain, and then went over to New York and filled up 
in the 'tween-decks with assorted cargo, and sailed for 
merry England. 

When we got in the chops of the Channel, a heavy fog 
closed in, and he promptly hove her to, although vessels 
of all sorts were continually passing us, bound in ; and here 
we lay for ten days. Every night, before eight o'clock, it 
would clear off as fine as could be, and during my watch on 
deck I would get her position by the altitudes of the stars ; 
and though my position agreed with that given by the deep- 
sea lead, yet, as the fog shut down again at daylight, he 
wouldn't run. He said he never heard of anybody getting 
their position by the stars, and he didn't believe in it. He 
wanted to see the sun, and then you knew what you'd got. 

We saw the sun, by and bye, and then he squared away, 
and at last this most dismal of passages came to an end by 
our arrival at Bristol. 



STRAITS OF SUNDA 37 1 

The crew left us here, and he had to hire men to get the 
cargo out, and he grunted over that. I told him I didn't 
suppose he wanted a high-priced New York crew to stay by 
him in England ; that I had never heard of such a thing. 
He said he didn't want them to stay by altogether, but only 
until the cargo was out. Well, sailors may be fools, but I 
have yet to see a crew that would stay aboard and discharge 
cargo, when they know they won't get a cent for it, nor be 
allowed to make another passage in her because their wages 
are too high. 

While in Bristol, I took a trip to Stratford-on-Avon, and 
visited the birthplace and tomb of Shakespeare ; and I shall 
always be glad that I did so, for it was to me the most inter- 
esting trip that I ever made. 

The old lady in charge of Anne Hathaway's cottage gave 
me a sprig of lavender, and its descendants are growing in 
my father's garden to this day. 

We got our cargo out, and shipped a crew of riggers to 
take her to Newport in Wales, where we got a cargo of coal 
and shipped a crew, and set sail for Rio de Janeiro. The 
old man shipped a carpenter here, as there was lots of car- 
penter's work to do on the old ballahoo. He shipped as a 
sailor, but agreed to do the carpentering. He was a good 
carpenter and a nice fellow, — a great big Nova Scotiaman, 
over six feet high and built like an ox. One day in Rio the 
old man told him that he was not doing a certain job right, 
and the carpenter insisted that he was, and wouldn't do it 
any other way. The old man got mad, and, turning to me, 
said : " Mr. Williams, I want that man licked. Do you 
hear? I want him licked." I sized the carpenter up, and 
told him I had no objections to his licking him whenever 
he saw fit, and walked away. 

We had a cook on this voyage, who, hke all cooks, had 
an immense idea of his own importance. He was cook and 



372 ON MANY SEAS 

steward both. I had occasion to speak to hun several times 
about throwing slops over the ship's side, and one forenoon 
he gave me a rather surly answer. I let it go at the time, 
but it rankled ; and as I was taking the sun's altitude that 
noon he passed me with the cabin dinner, and jostled me 
roughly, just as the lower limb was about to dip, thus causing 
me to lose the observation. 

As he came aft the next trip with a big meat pie in his 
bands, I said to him : " Say, steward, do you know that you 
ran into me and made me lose the observation? Where are 
your manners? You should have excused yourself." 

" Oh, don't talk to me," said he ; "you ain't got the fore- 
castle stink off of yourself yet." 

I landed him one plump on the eyebrow, and down went 
his house. As he fell, the pie went over his head, down the 
companion-way, and landed bottom up square on the cat, 
who was dozing in the sun at the foot of the steps. The 
cat went round the cabin, tail on end, like a streak of light- 
ning round a down-east farm, and put in the whole after- 
noon licking the pie and hair off herself, for it was steaming 
hot ; and when her toilet was completed, she was nearly 
naked, although she had enjoyed a good meal. 

The steward jumped up and came for me, but I had the 
weather gauge of him, and gave him a kick in the stomach 
and a lift under the jaw that tumbled him over the poop 
down on to the main deck, and that settled his hash. I 
never heard any more about forecastle stinks. 

In Rio, I saw negro slaves for the first time. The old 
man hired six of them from their owner to work in the coal, 
just as you would hire a man's horses. And it was sur- 
prising to me to see how hard and faithfully they worked, 
although there was nobody to oversee them. As they spoke 
only Portuguese, I could not tell them anything. At noon 
their dinners were sent off to them, great big kettles of 



STRAITS OF SUNDA 373 

boiled rice, and nothing else ; and they yappled that down 
like hungry wolves, and pitched in again and worked like 
horses. They appeared to be cheerful and happy, due, I 
suppose, to their ignorance of any better condition. 

I did not go ashore at all in Rio. I had a new foretop- 
mast to send up, and as we could only work at that when 
there was no lighter alongside, it kept us hustling so that I 
was glad enough to stay aboard and rest nights and Sundays. 

The weather was terribly hot. Rio is situated in a land- 
locked bay, deep down among mountains, and we wouldn't 
get a breath of air from one week's end to another. 

As there were no satisfactory freights in Rio, after we got 
the coal out, the old man took in a lot of stone ballast, and 
we went to Java seeking a cargo. And what a job we had 
getting out of that pesky hole, Rio ! There are no tugs 
there, and we had to warp her all the way out to sea. But 
when we did get out, how good the breeze felt ! We were 
all glad enough to see Rio over the taffrail. 

And now came a long journey to the eastward. We took 
a strong breeze right off, and for weeks and weeks she reeled 
off her ten knots an hour, night and day. 

At the entrance to the straits of Sunda, we saw a large 
vessel ashore, with her sails in ribbons ; and, as the breeze 
was light, I asked the old man to bear down on her and see 
if we could not save her crew, and perhaps make a little 
salvage for ourselves. So he kept away, and by and bye 
we satisfied ourselves that there was nobody aboard, and 
we put out a boat, and I boarded her. I had long wanted 
a chronometer, and hoped to find one in her. I sailed the 
boat down under her stern, which was in deep water, and 
discovered by her appearance that she had evidently been 
there a good while, as the paint was pretty well all gone 
from her hull, and the iron rust had run down her sides in 
streaks. 



374 ON MANY SEAS 

Her name had been on her stern in big black letters, but 
it had all fallen off except the letters — " terdam," indicat- 
ing to me that she was Dutch, and had hailed either from 
Amsterdam or Rotterdam. 

Not seeing any chance to board her on the weather side, 
we doused our mast and pulled round to leeward, and in- 
stantly became aware of a most horrible smell. We could 
hardly stand it at first, but got a little used to it after a 
bit ; and seeing the end of the fore brace towing overboard, 
we picked our way among the rocks and got hold of it. I 
told the bow oarsman to hang on while I scrambled up to 
the rail. 

As soon as I mounted the rail, there was a great whir of 
wings, and up flew from her deck hundreds of birds of all 
kinds, and then I found from whence came the terrible 
stench. 

All over her deck were strewn what was left of the 
bodies of her crew, and apparently of her passengers also, 
for I saw several women's dresses among them. There 
was little left but the skeletons, for the birds had picked 
them clean wherever they could get at them, tearing the 
clothing with their powerful beaks. And they now roosted 
on the yards and houses, and squawked at me for disturb- 
ing their feast. I was nearly overpowered by the smell ; 
but remembering my desire for a chronometer, I held my 
nose, and jumping down on the blood-stained deck, ran 
as quickly as I could into the cabin. A rapid glance there 
showed me that everything was in the most perfect order. 
Even a sewing-basket on the cabin table remained just as 
it had been left. I opened the door of the captain's room 
and glanced hurriedly about. No sign of a chronometer 
there. But stay, there was a little closet near the head of 
his bunk, which was locked. I gave the door a couple 
of kicks, but I might as well have hit it with a string of 



STRAITS OF SUNDA 375 

sausages as to try to burst it open that way. I looked 
round for some kind of implement, and over my head I 
saw two axes witli red handles in brackets. I hastily snatched 
one of them down and stove in the door, and there right in 
front of me, on a small shelf, stood the chronometer. It 
was fast to the shelf with a couple of brass screws. But 
hastily breaking off the point of the large blade of my 
pocket knife, I soon had them out. There was a bag of 
charts and a iine Pillar sextant in the closet, and freezing on 
to the whole outfit I hastily made my way out, scaring the 
birds again, who had settled down to a renewal of their 
feast. 

I handed my prizes down into the boat, and followed 
after myself, nearly suffocated with the horrible stench ; 
and glad enough were we all to get to windward of the 
wreck again, where we could take a long breath. 

As we came alongside, I held up the chronometer and 
sang out to the old man : " I've got my chronometer at last." 

" Hah," said he ; ^"^ your chronometer, hey ? " 

Then I knew he didn't intend to let me keep it, but 
would claim it for the vessel, or, to put it in plain English, 
for himself. 

So when he passed me down a rope's end and told me 
to bend on that chronometer, I made the most natural 
stumble I could, and dropped it overboard. Oh, my ! 
wasn't he mad. He said it was mighty funny that I 
should drop it overboard just as I got alongside. And I 
told him I was awfully sorry, for I had always wanted a 
chronometer, and thought sure now that I had got one ; 
but he very quickly assuaged my grief by telling me that it 
wouldn't have been mine in any case, as he should have 
endeavoured to find the owners, and, failing that, it would 
naturally revert to the vessel, I having been an employee 
when I got it in the line of my duty. 



3/6 ON MANY SEAS 

He made me give up the sextant and bag of charts ; and 
I never heard that he made any very strenuous efforts to 
discover their owner, either, although we found out in 
Batavia that the vessel was well known there. She be- 
longed to a regular trading firm which did business on the 
island, and had been reported by all incoming ships for 
some time ; but, apparently, nobody but myself had ever 
boarded her. 



• CHAPTER XLIII 

A Load of Javanese Sugar. — Running the Bali Strait. — 
Man and Monkey. — A Row with the Old Man. 

At Batavia we chartered to go down the coast a bit, to 
Sourabaya, and take in a cargo of sugar to Queenstown 
for " orders." 

The sugar came off slowly in lighters, and was stowed by 
nativ^es, assisted by the crew. It was in great baskets which, 
after having been stowed for a day and the sugar allowed 
to settle to the bottom, were then turned on edge, thereby 
making more room. As it came off so slowly, some of it 
got turned twice, so that by the time she was full we had 
several hundred baskets more than the old man had figured 
on in Batavia ; and as he paid the freight broker there his 
commission on the estimated number of baskets that she 
would carry, he pretended to be worried for fear he had 
done something not exactly honest. He made me sick 
with his everlasting hypocrisy about honesty. 

East of Java is Bali Island, said to be inhabited by canni- 
bals. The two islands are separated by a narrow passage 
called Bali Strait. It is a rather peculiar piece of water in 
some respects. It is very narrow in the middle, and opens 
out into a funnel-shaped mouth at either end. The tide flows 
through it each way alternately ; and, owing to its peculiar 
shape, when the large mass of water in the funnel crowds 
into the narrows, it rushes along like the rapids below Niagara. 

377 



$y8 ON MANY SEAS 

Fortunately the wind always blows with the tide, so that 
although you can't possibly go through except at tide time, 
yet when once entered, you are as sure of going through, if 
you keep clear of the rocks, as shot are sure to run out of 
an inverted bottle. The Dutch government furnishes native 
pilots, but the pilotage is exorbitant. 

The old man use.l t j tell me of the conversations the cap- 
tains had on shore about running Bah Strait. Some said 
they wouldn't risk their ships in such a hole at all. Others 
were satisfied to go through if they were sure of getting a 
pilot. But the pilot station is well within the mouth of the 
strait, and they are afraid if they get in there, and there is 
no pilot to be had, they may not be able to get out again ; 
and then what? 

Our old man said he would go through, and he wouldn't 
pay pilotage, either. No, sir; not he. Well, when we got 
there, the wind and tide were coming out, so we beat up as 
far as we could, to get a good start on the turn of the tide. 
We got in far enough so that we could see into the strait with 
the glass, and the sight was not encouraging to a timid man. 
We could see the trees bending before the blast, and the 
seas seemed to stand right up and down. 

A little country walla came scooting along through, and it 
looked as if she was skipping along from the crest of one 
sea to that of the next, like a flying-fish. I could see that 
the old man was getting fidgety. He told me to have both 
anchors clear, and seventy-five fathoms of chain overhauled 
on each. 

Anchors ! You might as well have tried to hold her with 
a needleful of sail twine as with anchors in that gut. 

As the tide and wind slacked, we were abreast of the 
pilot station, and finally the old man said : " You may as 
well hoist the pilot signal, Mr. Williams ; there's no use in 
taking chances on the insurance just for the sake of a pilot's 



A JAVANESE PILOT 379 

fee. And soon after, a little canoe came skipping off from 
shore with a half-naked native in her. The most conspicu- 
ous article of clothing about him was a big tin medal, as big 
as a dinner-plate, hung round his neck by a leather string. 
We threw him a line, and he climbed up the side, using his 
toes like a monkey. He came aft, carrying a canvas bag 
about the size of a horse's nose-bag. This was to carry his 
money in. He stepped up to the captain, and holding out 
his bag, said : 

" You pay." 

" Are you a pilot ? " 

"You pay." 

" Wal, I want ter know first if you're a pilot." 

"You pay." The old man inspected his dinner-plate 
medal, and, as it had some untranslatable Dutch words on 
it, he concluded that this must indeed be the pilot, and went 
down and brought up a bag of dollars, from which he counted 
out into the native's bag the necessary fee, and then, as the 
breeze made in from the sea, the little old curio climbed on 
top of a quarter bitt, and squatted down on his hunkers, 
contentedly clutching his bag of money. 

We squared away now, and headed for the Strait, and at 
once the breeze picked up, and she began to fly along. 

The old man asked the pilot if she was heading all right, 
but he merely blinked his little black eyes, and didn't even 
grunt. 

" D that nigger ! " said the old man. " Go forward, 

Mr. Williams ; take the carpenter and two top mauls with 
you, and stand by both anchors, and if I sing out, let 'em both 
go at once." "Ay, ay, sir." By the time I got on the 
forecastle head, she was right into it, and Lord ! I never 
saw anything like the rate she was getting past the shore. It 
was as if she had been shot out of a cannon. The short, 
choppy seas were jumping straight up in the air, ten, fifteen, 



38o ON MANY SEAS 

twenty feet high, and their heads were cut off by the gale 
which was blowing in that hell-hole, and went flying away 
ahead in solid sheets of spray. They flew all over the bark 
in all directions, and everybody and everything was drenched. 
The wind howled and roared under the foot of the foresail, 
in the most deafening manner, and the bark bobbed and 
pounded in the choppy sea, so that I could hardly keep my 
feet, and expected momentarily to be thrown off the bow, 
clean overboard. The high, rocky shores, which didn't look 
to be more than fifty feet apart, were shooting by us with 
more than railway speed. The least touch of her keel meant 
death and destruction. I own that I was scared. But that 
blasted pilot sat there on the bitt, hanging on to his bag 
of money, as calmly as if he had been under a cocoanut 
tree, and surrounded by his whole monkey family. 

Once the old man yelled at him and asked him why he 
didn't get up and take charge, if he was pilot, and he calmly 
answered, " Luffee." 

" 'Luffee,' you blasted idiot ! how can I luff? ain't I dead 
before it, and in this narrow hell? If I luff a quarter of a 
point, she'U be ashore before Hell could scorch a feather." 
But the pilot never opened his head again from that time 
forward. 

All at once I realized that the wind was falling off in its 
fury, and just as she seemed to be right in the centre of the 
boiling, frothing caldron, the sails gave a thunderous flap 
and fell to the masts. 

The wind had suddenly died out. But no ; a glance at 
the trees and bushes ashore showed that it was still blowing 
with all its fury, but the current had become so fearfully 
strong and rapid now, that she was actually outstripping the 
gale. In another moment she slewed athwart the stream 
and headed for the Bali shore, not thirty feet away. She 
had lost her steerage, and was simply drifting. 



A JAVANESE PILOT 38 1 

I saw the old man jump up and down and yell at the two 
men at the wheel, but they were powerless. Then he ran 
down on deck and let fly the main topgallant halyards, and 
had the men clew it up. I called the carpenter to me, and 
we hauled the head sheets to windward. There was really 
no great danger of going ashore on Bali, for she had no way 
through the water, and was merely drifting broadside on ; 
and that blasted pilot sat there and blinked in the sun, the 
only happy man aboard. 

At the rate she was going, she must soon arrive some- 
where, if she could only keep water between the keel and 
the rocks. Presently we swept around a corner, the current 
carrying her in mid-stream. I heard the jib sheets snap 
taut, as the sails once more filled, and she got steerage way 
on her and swung her nose around again in the right direc- 
tion. We were through the worst of it, and in a few mo- 
ments more our valuable pilot left us, and we were again in 
blue and Christian water. 

We were now fairly started on our long voyage to Queens- 
town ; and a tedious and disagreeable passage it was. I 
was getting more and more disgusted with the old man every 
day, and although I never failed in outward signs of respect 
to him, yet I presume that he guessed what my feelings 
towards him were, and he never missed an opportunity to 
be ugly. Matters came to such a head at last that I avoided 
him as much as I could, and never spoke to him unless 
spoken to, or unless business required it. 

On the homeward-bound passage it is always customary 
to clean ship, scrape, paint, rattle, and tar down, and if I 
didn't admire my captain or love his old bark, I had pride 
enough in myself to desire to bring her into port looking as 
nice as she could be made to look. So I kept the men up 
afternoons, and gave her a thorough overhauHng, and got 
everything ship-shape : the rathnes like spider-lines ; the 



382 ON MANY SEAS 

spars stayed to a nicety ; rigging as black and shiny as a 
crow's wing ; all the bright work scraped and varnished ; 
everything newly painted, and the decks holystoned until 
they were as white as the proverbial hound's-tooth. 

The cook had bought a monkey in Sourabaya, and al- 
though he was more or less of a nuisance, he still survived. 

One day, after everything was about done, I noticed a bare 
spot on the weather bumpkin where some one had stepped 
on it and rubbed off the new paint, so I went forwird and 
got a black paint pot and painted it over. Going forward 
again to put away the pot, I set it on the main hatch for a 
minute, while I went below to get my pipe. It seems that 
the monkey was tied to one of the ring-bolts of the hatch, 
but I did not see him. I suppose he must have been lying 
down in the sun behind the combing ; anyway, as I came up 
again I saw him on the hatch, straining every nerve to reach 
the lanyard of the paint pot. I hollered at him, but he had 
got it, and, jumping back in his fright he pulled it over, and 
upset about two quarts of black paint all over my nice clean 
deck, and right in front of the cabin. 

My ! but I was mad. I grabbed that monkey and wiped 
the paint up with him ; I rolled and soaked and sozzled him 
in black paint, until the veriest tramp monkey that ever 
existed would have dechned his acquaintance. And all the 
time the monkey was jabbering and swearing at me in Por- 
tuguese, or whatever language they use, and when I got him 
so thoroughly saturated with paint that he wouldn't take any 
more, I slammed him down on the hatch and went forward 
to the paint-locker for some turpentine. When I came back 
he was sitting on the hatch, scraping the paint off himself. 

He would reach down and scrape up a handful off his 
side, smell it, then taste it, and showing his teeth, he would 

say, . Well, you know what monkeys say as well 

as I do. Then he would wipe it off on the tarpaulin. And 



A JAVANESE PILOT 383 

he looked so comical blearing at me through the paint, that, 
mad as I was, I could hardly keep from laughing. 

While I was trying to clean up the mess on deck, the old 
man came up from below, and seeing us down there he 
shouted out : " Mr. Wilhams, who has been abusing that 
poor animal like that?" 

I don't think he had ever looked at the blamed monkey 
before. I told him what had happened, and he said I ought 
to be ashamed of myself. He said I had no business to set 
the pot where he could get at it, and he told me, plump and 
plain, that he wanted me to clean that monkey. 

I had stood a good deal from him since leaving Sourabaya, 
but this was the last straw. I told him I had something else 
to do, and walked forward, totally ignoring his remark. Then 
the old man opened out on me, and we had it hot and heavy 
for a while ; but I gave him as good as he sent, and he at 
last retreated aft, while I, disgusted clear through, picked up 
my pots and went forward, leaving the big black stain on 
the deck ; and for all I know, or care, it is there yet. 

The breach was now opened between us, and we never 
made any pretence, after that, of being other than the worst 
of friends ; but, of course, he, being captain, could annoy 
me daily in thousands of ways, and I not only couldn't help 
myself, but neither could I get back at him ; and those were 
the conditions when we arrived in the harbour of Queens- 
town, and let go our killick on the bottom of Erin's green isle. 

It was Sunday morning ; and no sooner was the anchor 
down, than the old man got into a shore boat and cleared 
out. I knew well enough what was the matter : he wanted 
to get something fit to eat, for, lately, we had been living 
on pretty rotten provisions ; and I wondered if he would 
send anything off for the rest of us. Yes ; he did not forget 
us. A boat came alongside, within an hour, with beef and 
vegetables. 



384 ON MANY SEAS 

I was sitting on top of the cabin, smoking and reading a 
paper which the boatman gave me, when the steward came 
up, and said : " There's the beef, Mr. WiUiams." 

I looked at it, and said : " For God's sake. Doctor, what 
is it?" " It's bull's neck, sir," said he. I asked him if he 
wanted any of it, or could use any of it for the men's dinner. 
He said yes, he could make soup out of it. " All right," 
said I. " Take what you want for soup, and bring the rest 
aft to me." 

I told the boatman not to go yet, as I wanted to send a 
message to the captain. Then I went below, tore a leaf 
out of the back of the log-book, and wrote on it, in large 
letters : " Comphments of Mr. Williams to Captain Staple- 
ton ; " and when the cook brought the beef aft again I 
skewered that into it, and told the boatswain to deliver it 
into the captain's own hands, no matter where he was. 

" I will, sorr," said the Irishman, his eyes twinkling. 
" And sure I don't blame ye, so I don't. That mate's not 

fit for a dog to ate. I'm a poor man meself, but divil d 

the wan o' me that would touch that ! " 

It didn't seem as if it was twenty minutes before the old 
man was aboard again ; and he was raving. What did I 
mean by sending him such a message as that? and what 
was the matter with that beef ? and who did I think I was, 
anyhow? He said that d — d Irishman brought that piece 
of beef up, and handed it to him just as he was being intro- 
duced to an Enghsh captain and his wife ; and he never 
was so ashamed in his life. I asked him what he was 
ashamed of. 

"Ashamed of you, sir ! Ashamed to have them see that 
I had a mate with so httle manners as to send his captain 
such a message as that ! " 

" Oh," said I, " I thought it couldn't be possible that you 
were ashamed to let the Englishman see what a choice piece 



A JAVANESE PILOT 385 

of beef you sent off for your mate's Sunday dinner, the first 
day in port, after a four months' passage on rotten grub." 

And so we stormed at one another, like a couple of old 
fishwives, until he got tired and went off again, cautioning 
me not to allow any boats alongside. 

It is customary, when deep-water ships come to Queens- 
town for orders, for a tailor and a shoemaker to get permis- 
sion from the captain to supply the crew with clothing ; and 
thus when the ship arrives at her final port of discharge, and 
the captain gets his freight money, he forwards the amount 
of the bill, less, of course, a liberal discount to himself. 

The next day, in the dinner hour, a boat came alongside, 
and the passenger in her handed me an order from the cap- 
tain to allow the bearer to sell the crew what clothes they 
wanted. So I allowed him to come aboard. I think the 
old man must have seen the boat alongside, from the shore ; 
for before one o'clock, to my surprise, he came up the 
gangway, and, without stopping to catch his breath, he 
said : 

" Mr. Williams, I told you not to allow any boats along- 
side this vessel, and there's one been here ever since twelve 
o'clock." 

"Where?" said I, and looking over the rail I pretended 
that was the first I had seen of her ; and I went and cast 
off her painter, and told the Irish boy in her I'd drive an 
iron belaying-pin through her bottom, if he didn't clear out. 
He began to holler for Misther McCormick, arid the tailor 
came out of the forecastle and said, " Sure, I have your 
ordher, captain ; that's my boat, sir," and he waved the 
order excitedly above his head. 

"Oh, yes! that's all right, Mr. Williams; that's the 
tailor's boat. Leave him alone, but don't let any other 
boats come alongside. Why didn't you tell me that was 
the tailor's boat? " 



386 ON MANY SEAS 

" You didn't ask me, sir." So away he went ashore 
again. 

The tailor got lots of orders from the crew, but he never 
filled them. I never allowed him alongside again. When 
the old man asked me why I didn't allow the tailor to fill 
his orders, I told him that every boat that came alongside 
claimed to have an order from him, and I couldn't distin- 
guish one from another, so I kept them all away, as those 
were my orders ; and by that means I did him out of his 
commissions, touching him on the only sensitive place — his 
pocket. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

I TAKE MY Discharge at Havre. — Home by Steamer. — 
French Discipline. — The Scenes of my Youth. — A 
German Captain. 

We soon got orders to deliver our cargo in Havre, which 
suited me first-rate, as I always liked Havre ; it is a gay 
town. When we got tied up in the basin by nine o'clock at 
night, I went ashore ; and of course, coming off a long voy- 
age, my credit was unlimited. So I stayed ashore three days 
and nights, and had a real good time. Then I wandered 
down aboard at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and found 
the old man, the second mate, and the boy pumping the 
ship. I did not offer to help them, but went on the poop 
and watched them ; and when I saw the pump suck, I called 
out, "Avast pumping !" and in a few minutes, "Shake her 
up again!" And when she sucked again, I said, "That'll 
do the pump," and told the second mate and boy to get 
brooms and sweep the decks ; and I went below to get a 
clean shirt. 

While I was changing my shirt, the old man came to my 
door and said : 

"Well, Mr. Williams, I suppose now you've had a run 
ashore, you're going to attend to business again; hey?" 

" Well, no, captain ; I can't attend to much business in 
Havre. I've got too many friends here. It will take me 
about all the time we're here to see them all." 

387 



388 ON MANY SEAS 

" But I'm going to begin discharging cargo to-morrow, 
and I want a mate aboard then." 

" Sorry, captain ; but you never can depend on me in 
Havre." 

" Well, then, if that's the case, you'd better take your 
pay, and I'll get another man." 

"With pleasure, sir. When can I get it?" 

" About this time to-morrow. I'll be up at the consul's 
office, and if you come up, I'll pay you off then." 

So the next day I went up to the consul's office and got 
four hundred and sixty-five dollars' worth of French gold, — 
the biggest pay-day I had ever had so far. 

And perhaps I didn't make Havre pay up for all the long 
months of disheartening and miserable existence I had en- 
dured on board that old bark ! 

There was a young French lady in whose smiles I had 
basked before, so I hunted her up and found her to be the 
same vivacious, charming little girl that she had always been. 

She soon consoled me for my troubles and tribulations. 
When I was with her, I always learned French very rapidly ; 
only to forget it again as soon as I got outside Cape Gris 
Nez. But it was fun to learn it all over again the next time. 

I did not forget my father's promise to go down east visit- 
ing with me at the expiration of this voyage, and, as I was 
well heeled financially, I determined to go home as pas- 
senger on board a big steamship. But I did not want to 
pay all out for the privilege of crossing the Atlantic ; so I 
bought a second-class ticket in the Ville de Paris, one of the 
steamers of the " Campagnie General Transatlantique." 

One thing struck me as very strange on board, and that 
was the apparent absence of respect shown by the men to 
their officers. I was standing to leeward of the wheel-house 
one day, when the captain spoke to the helmsman, and his 
answer was " Qui." 



SCENES OF MY YOUTH 389 

Why, great heavens ! the second mate of an old West 
India sugar-drogher or Philadelphia coal-schooner wouldn't 
allow a man to answer him without saying " sir." 

The French captain didn't mind it in the least. One 
day all hands were called to fire-quarters ; and of all 
the jabbering and wrangling and shouting to one another 
that I ever heard, that was the worst. It was like what 
sailors call a Portuguese Parliament. They got the hose 
all tangled up, and couldn't find half the fire-buckets and 
axes ; and by the time they could have got a stream of 
water on the fire, we would have needed to take to the 
boats. 

When we reached New York, the cockney steward held 
out his hand, as large as life, and we gave him half a dollar 
apiece, to pay for the luxurious rye bread and garlic upon 
which we had rioted all the way across. As we went over 
the gangway, I caught sight of the French captain, with his 
hat off, bowing and smiling to the cabin passengers, as they 
left the ship ; and, upon my word, he looked as if he were 
fishing for " tips." We, being second-class passengers, our 
baggage was taken away down to the further end of the pier, 
to await the Castle Garden tender. When we found that 
out, we went down after it. I had a trunk, but a friend of 
mine, an engineer, only had a small vahse. We found them 
after a while, and putting the vahse on top of the trunk, we 
each took a handle, and started up the pier, looking for a 
custom-house officer. 

When we got about half-way up the dock, along came a 
pompous little German officer, all arrayed in blue cloth and 
brass buttons, and sang out : 

" Here ! here ! vere you goin' mit dem baggage ? " 

" Going home," said I. 

" You mustn't take dem baggage avay from dere. Dat 
has to go to Castle Yarden; dat's emigrant's baggage." 



390 ON MANY SEAS 

" What's emigrant's baggage ? What are you talking 
about? That's my baggage. Am I an emigrant ? " 

" Put down dat baggage, I tole you." 

And with that, the infernal Httle scamp jumped right on 
top of the trunk. We dropped it, and he rolled over on the 
dock, soiling his nice, clean clothes. He got up, sputtering 
and threatening, and a small crowd gathered round. 

I grabbed the Dutchman by the collar, and gave him a 
good shaking. " See here," said I, " you infernal Dutch- 
man, I'm a New York boy ; and do you mean to tell me that 
because I came over second-class in that steamer, a galoot 
like you will send me through Castle Garden as an emigrant? 
I'd hke to see myself! " 

Here a custom-house oflicer, a bright young fellow, 
stepped up, and asked what was the matter. We explained 
the case to him, told him we were American seamen return- 
ing home, and what the officer was trying to do to us. 

" You haven't got any dutiable goods in your trunk and 
valise, have you, boys? " 

" No, sir." 

"Well, all right. I'll pass them," said he; and he put his 
hieroglyphic on them, showing that they had been inspected, 
and said : 

"There you are, now. Take them where you like; and 
if Schwartz interferes with you again, punch him in the 
snout." 

I went directly to ray father's New York office, and found 
his partner sitting there, reading the morning paper. 

" Hello, Fred," said he, sticking out his fin. " Where in 
the deuce have you come from, now?" 

" Havre," said I. 

" Phew ! my Goddlemighty, what have you been eating? 
Frogs, rats, or what ? " 

" Nothing," I told him ; " only a httle garhc." 



SCENES OF MY YOUTH 39 1 

"Well," said he, "stand a little further off, please. You 
smell Hke an Italian." I had dressed myself in a new suit 
of clothes that I had made according to the latest style just 
before I left Havre, and looking me over, he said, " Where 
in h did ye git them clothes?" 

"Where j'ou never drank tea," said I. 

" Well, I shouldn't want to, either, if you have to rig 
yourself up Hke that to do it." 

I asked him how father was, and he said, all right as far 
as he knew ; but he wouldn't vouch for him after he had 
seen me in " that rig." So after a little more chaff with 
him I went over to Brooklyn to see my daddy. He was 
very much surprised to see me, for the last that he had 
heard from me was that we were bound to Queenstown. 

I soon broached the subject of our visit to my mother's 
relatives, and to my great satisfaction found that he was as 
anxious as myself to be gone. 

He had not had a holiday for years, and the correspond- 
ence with my cousin had awakened memories which had 
long lain dormant. We soon made our preparations. He 
got a new suit of clothes, and I did the same, for I found 
that Mr. Gray was not the only one who made fun of my 
Parisian style. We took the Fall River boat to Boston, and 
thence went by rail to our destination. And for the next 
two months I enjoyed myself better than I ever did before, 
or since. It was indeed an epoch in my career, — a season 
to be marked with a whole shipload of white stones. 

I was the honoured guest in many homes. I found, 
besides uncles and aunts galore, of whose very existence I 
had never dreamed, whole rafts of cousins, young men and 
women, some of them married, but most of them single, 
and they coddled and lionized me to my heart's content ; for 
was not I their sailor cousin, who had voyaged to all parts 
of the known and unknown world? And had I not seen 



392 ON MANY SEAS 

many of the strange peoples of the earth ? And wasn't I 
the second in command of ships? Well, I guess so. And 
what yarns I spun them, — regular fore hatch twisters, which 
would have put some of Captain Marryat's heroes to the 
blush. And what an unalloyed good time I had ! 

That was many years ago, but the memory of it will 
remain with me while reason lasts. It was a pleasure trip 
which, for me, can never be duplicated. 

Many of the old folks have since gone to their reward. 
Good, kind, and affectionate, honest souls they were, who 
would have been horrified had they once dreamed that I 
was the character which I knew myself to be, and I would 
not have undeceived them for worlds. 

The cousins are all married people now, with families, 
and some with grandchildren of their own. For years they 
have had their own joys, sorrows, troubles, and triumphs, 
and cousin Fred has, I fear, become a very ordinary per- 
sonage in their estimation. For with the youth went the 
romance that once threw a glamour over my very ordinary 
career. 

While I was about it, and not knowing when I might have 
such another opportunity, I extended my travels away up 
into that rocky httle town in Maine where I first introduced 
myself, and visited the dear old uncle and aunt who had put 
up with my deviltry for so many years, and stood loyally by 
me when there were few grown people in the neighbour- 
hood who could be reckoned among my admirers. I found 
none of the boys with whom I used to associate, for the 
down-east boy has a way of leaving the old farm and 
going out into the world. Many of them make their mark, 
too ; in fact few of them, I fancy, have made out as poorly 
as myself. 

I found that time had so softened their recollections of 
me that the old graybeards who once wanted to put me in 



SCENES OF MY YOUTH 393 

the reform school could now laugh heartily as they recalled 
my boyish pranks. And here again I was a welcome guest. 

When I had no longer any excuse for staying, and not 
caring to make my relations twice glad, — once to see me 
come and again to see me go, — I packed my grip and 
pointed my nose once more for tide-water. There was a 
ship in New York, the last remnant of a once considerable 
line of Havre packets, called the James A. Stanton. Her 
owner was a friend of my father ; and his son, hearing 
that I was looking for a ship, offered to introduce me to the 
captain. "Although I'll tell 3'ou, Fred," said he, "no mate 
ever makes more than one voyage with him, and many only 
a passage ; but if 5'ou want to go, I guess my introduction 
will make it all right." 

I thanked him, and said I guessed I'd have a hack at 
the old ship if I could get it. So we went aboard. She 
was a small ship of only a thousand tons' register, and he 
introduced me to Captain Christopher and told him what I 
wanted. He said I could come aboard any time, so I went 
aboard the next day. 

Captain Christopher was a German, and before we got to 
Havre he had told me all about himself. He shipped in 
her first as carpenter, and, according to his " tell," that must 
have been in the year one, when Adam was oakum-boy in 
the Brooklyn navy-yard. And from carpenter he gradually 
worked his way up, although he admitted that the old cap- 
tain had driven him ashore times too numerous to mention. 

" But vat I care? I comes alvays beck agen," he would 
say. Finally he got to be mate ; and a few years before I 
joined her, the old captain dying at sea, he brought her in 
and succeeded to his place. 

"Und now I am keptin. ^dX you tink? " was the way he 
always wound up his stock yarn. He had been in her so 
long that he knew every bolt and rope-yarn and stitch in 



394 ON MANY SEAS 

her, and their history, and all about them. But that wasn't 
the worst of it. He thought that because nobody else was 
so intimately acquainted with her as he was, that they were 
not competent to take care of her; consequently, he was 
always meddling, had his finger in everybody's pie ; and if 
there is any one thing which will make a ship's officer weary 
it is to have the captain for ever interfering with his business. 
He was one of those men who, when he discovered any- 
thing, thought that because he had not known it before, 
nobody else did, or ever would if he hadn't told them. So 
that he was for ever calling my attention to things which I 
knew all about and was caring for. And yet he was not by 
any means pompous or airy, but just a meddlesome old 
nuisance. 

I soon saw why no mate ever made the second voyage 
with him ; because no man but himself, in his estimation, 
was worth having. 

I had for second mate a young Irishman, Tom Donnelly. 
Tom was a corker. He would knock a man down just for 
fun, and then ask him for a chew of tobacco, and likely 
enough give him a kick when he gave it back to him. 

He had been married in New Orleans to a young girl 
who was to inherit twenty thousand dollars on her twenty- 
first birthday, but she died three months before that auspi- 
cious event, and Tom had to go to sea again. " But I guess 
I got square with her," said he, " for I never paid for her 
coffin." 



CHAPTER XLV 

I STAY BY THE ShIP FOR A RECORD. — SQUARING ACCOUNTS 

WITH Mr. Lynch. — Love at First Sight. — Captain 
HuRLBURT Again. — The Electric Age. 

The old man meddled so much, that finally Tom nick- 
named him " the boatswain " ; and one day, when he had 
irritated me almost beyond endurance, I told him that if 
he would leave my part of the business alone, I would attend 
to it all right. I told him he only made himself ridiculous 
by the way he acted. 

" Why," said I, " do you know what the second mate 
calls you? " 

"No; vat?" 

"He calls you 'the bos'n.' " 

" Veil, all right. Ven nobody else be bos'n, den I be 
bos'n. I don' care." And he didn't care, either. Noth- 
ing offended his dignity. 

I was anxious to break the record, and make another 
voyage in her; for I felt that it would be quite a feather in 
my cap if I could make two voyages with him, he was so 
well known both in New York and Havre. So I put up 
with everything, and smothered my righteous indignation 
until sometimes it nearly choked me. 

Of course, when we got to Havre, our crew all left ; but 
I told Donnelly that I wanted him to stay with me and go 
back to New York in her, and he said he would. And we 
worked together days, and went ashore together nights. 

395 



39^ ON Many seas 

One evening we stepped into a caf6, and who should be 
in there but Mr. Lynch, the shipping-master. As we passed 
his table, he leered up at me and said : 

" Hello ! young man. Seems to me I've seen you before. 
What ship?" 

" Siantofi,''^ said I. 

"Ah! yes. Where are you boarding ? " 

" Nowhere. I'm staying by the ship." 

" What ! are you second mate of her? " 

" No ; I'm mate. This is the second mate, Mr. Donnelly." 

" How do you do, Mr. Donnelly? I hope I see you." 

Then to me he said : " Haven't you been in Havre 
before? " 

" Yes ; several times." 

" Seems as if I'd seen you ; but I can't just place you." 

" Do you remember going to London several years ago, 
and shipping two crews for two New Orleans ships?" 

"Yes." 

"Well, I was one of the men you shipped and brought 
over here, and paid ail his advance / " 

" Oh, yes ; I remember you now. Good evening." 

"Ta, ta, Mr. Lynch." And as he went out I saw a 
wicked gleam in his eye, and wondered what he expected 
to do. 

Shortly before we were ready for sea, Donnelly said to me 
one day : 

"What's the trouble between you and Lynch, Mr. 
Wilhams?" 

"Why?" 

" Oh, nothing ! Only I hear he's picking out all the 
toughest characters in Havre for this ship's crew, and 
promising every man a bottle of rum coming aboard." 

''Aha ! " said I. "That's his game, is it?" And I then 
told Tom of the episode in which I had won Mr. Lynch's 



SQUARE ACCOUNTS WITH LYNCH 397 

ill will, several years before. And we put our heads 
together to defeat his purpose, which was to give me a 
crew of drunken toughs out of Havre. I couldn't help 
taking the crew ; but forewarned is forearmed, and Tom 
and I were both young fellows and didn't mind a little 
scrimmage, provided we didn't get the worst of it. Luckily 
the tide served at four in the morning, which was dark at 
that time of the year, and the evening before I got her 
hauled down into the basin, and breasted her off about 
ten feet from the quay. 

x\bout three o'clock in the morning Lynch hailed, and 
told me to get in alongside the dock, as the crew wanted 
to come aboard. Tom and I shoved the end of a plank 
ashore, and I told them to come aboard, and stood a 
lantern on the rail to illumine the way. Lynch said the 
men couldn't come aboard that way, as some of them were 
drunk. I told him I didn't want any drunks, and those 
who couldn't come aboard that way might either stay 
ashore or fall overboard, just as they chose. 

After a little more blarney, one big long fellow, with 
a cap made of an old trousers' leg and covered with about 
four dozen little white shirt-buttons, and carrying a small 
clothes-bag, said he could "walk over the bloody plank, 
and the bloody man who put it there, too." 

Tom and I stood down on deck, one on each side, so 
that he would have to land between us. When his foot 
struck the deck, I said to him : 

" Hand over that whiskey." 

"Wat wiskey? Wat are you wiskeyin' about, sonny? 
Are you de bucko mate of dis bloody hooker, hey?" 

For answer, Tom came down lustily on top of his orna- 
mental cap with a good locust belaying-pin, and I grabbed 
him by the throat, planting an upper cut under his jaw first, 
and down we went in a heap, he hanging on to his bag with 



398 ON MANY SEAS 

a death grip. He was a tough cuss, and we both had quite 
a Hvely time pounding and kicking him to get the bag away. 
But we did, at last, and took two bottles of whiskey out of 
it. We then let him up, and warning him that we would 

knock his d head off if he didn't toe pitch, sent him 

forward. In the meantime two of them had essayed the 
plank and fallen overboard, and Lynch and the dock gang 
were fishing them out. 

" Come on now, me hearties ! Step lively there ! Who's 
next for a hair cut?" shouted Tom; and another one tried 
it. He managed to get aboard by crawling part of the way 
on his hands and knees, and to my demand for his whiskey, 
he wanted to argue the case confidentially ; but a crack from 
Tom's pin convinced him that time was precious, and he 
handed it over. 

Lynch was growling and swearing on the dock all the 
time, but we didn't care anything about him. It took over 
an hour to get them aboard, and not one escaped the initi- 
ating pin-crack. If a fellow gave up his rum, all right ; 
Tom would crack him one anyway, — "So I shall know him 
again," he said. But in spite of us they either managed to 
smuggle some whiskey forward, or else Lynch managed to 
get some to them, for they remained about half drunk and 
ugly all day. 

When I sent Tom to turn them to, I told him, if they 
showed fight, to make plenty of noise, and I would come to 
his assistance. 

" No fear, sir," said Tom, cheerily. " If any of them are 
fractious, I'll just give them a rub on their sore heads with 
my bone-softener, and they'll be all right." 

But they were not all right. They were full of cheap rum, 
and ugly, and didn't seem to mind the sore places much ; so 
that it kept us both pretty busy rubbing them down, and 
neither one of us left the pins out of our hands all day. 



SQUARE ACCOUNTS WITH LYNCH 399 

As we passed the pier-head, Lynch sang out, " A pleasant 
passage to you, Mr. Williams ! " 

I took off my hat, and thanked him, and told him I 
guessed I was getting as much fun out of it as anybody." 

Just then I heard a rattle-te-bang down on deck, and 
rushing down there found four of them, with Donnelly on 
his back, underneath, and catching fits. I soon had him up 
again ; and the merry tattoo of the seductive pin was again 
heard on their good thick skulls. It took us all day long, 
driving them about like sheep, to get the sail on her, and 
get the decks cleared up. 

At eight o'clock in the evening, we called them aft and 
picked the watches. They were now pretty sober, and I 
judge fairly sore. 

It was reasonable to suppose that the starboard watch 
would be sent below now ; but we had other plans for their 
welfare. 

The wind was on the quarter, a nice, whole-sail breeze, 
and very steady. We had them get four topmast stunsail 
booms down off the top of the forward house, and sling 
them over the lee side, by reef earings, just so that they 
would dip in the water nicely with every lee roll. 

Then we gave them pieces of canvas, and made them get 
over and scrub the side, sitting down on the booms. And 
every time she would roll to leeward she would dip them in 
the nice, cool, salt water, and the booms would swing out 
from the side a bit, and on the weather roll it would come 
back again with a bang which would have sadly barked the 
paint, but for their knees being in the way. 

Tom paraded back and forth with a lantern, to see that 
they scrubbed heartily ; and if he caught one sojering, a 
friendly tap on the same spot reminded him that 

" There's a spirit sits up aloft, to watch o'er the fate of poor Jack." 



400 ON MANY SEAS 

I got out a tub, and borrowed some sugar and lime-juice 
from the steward, and made a tub of tolerably strong grog, 
out of their own rum. At twelve o'clock, I told Tom to 
call the men to grog ; and you would not have believed 
that, after all they had been through, they could have 
scrambled in board as lively as they did. 

Tom formed them in line and marched them round the 
tub, keeping a sharp lookout to see that there was no double 
banking ; and I served out the grog, a pint pannikin to 
each one. After they had all been helped, there was con- 
siderable left ; so we walked them around again, and divided 
it up. 

" Now, boys, do you feel better? " said I. 

Chorus, sheepishly, " Yes, sir." 

I then made them a little speech. I told them I knew 
they had been shipped by Lynch to lick me, and so pay 
off an old grudge of his ; but I assured them that they 
had been misled, badly advised ; and I asked them if they 
thought that now they could go to their duty, and behave 
themselves. 

Chorus, heartily, " Yes, sir ! " 

" All right, boys ! Get over the side, and go on with 
your scrubbing again." 

At four o'clock we called them up, gave them what was 
left of their grog, and, after hauling up and storing away 
the booms, sent one watch below ; and a more docile crew 
than they were, I have never seen. There was no further 
trouble with them at all. To be sure, Tom would occasion- 
ally wallop one of them in his watch ; but they took it in 
the spirit in which it was sent, knowing that a second mate 
must keep his hand in ; but I never raised my hand to one 
of them, after that first day. 

Still, Lynch was not entirely deprived of his revenge, al- 
though perhaps he may never have known it. There was a 



SQUARE ACCOUNTS WITH LYNCH 4OI 

shyster lawyer in New York in those days, whom I will call 
Jones, because that was not his name. His only business 
was to interview sailors on incoming ships and get them to 
search their memories, to see if any one had been assaulted 
by the officers during the voyage, and if so, he would get 
the victim to swear out a warrant for the offender, and he 
himself would serve it, so as to get the fee. Being a lawyer, 
he could judge pretty nearly how much of a case the man 
had, and would settle for a little less than it would cost to 
go to court. 

I had already contributed to this gentleman's support, so 
that when I met him one day on South Street, and he raised 
his plug hat to me very politely, inquiring after my health, 
I knew what was coming, and asked him if a cigar would 
settle it. 

" Not this time, Mr. WiUiams," said he ; " for the whole 
crew have been horribly abused and mutilated. They all 
have scars on their persons which, if displayed and properly 
worked up before a jury, would, I have no doubt, send you 
up the river for a term of years." 

" Well, never mind all that. You're not addressing a jury 
now. How much will it take ? and don't fly too high, either, 
for I have only made a short voyage, and you can't get but 
mighty little out of me." 

At first he was inclined to be rather dignified, but finally 
we compromised on five dollars and a glass of South Street 
whiskey. 

I had not had a disagreeable word either with or from 
Captain Christopher during the voyage, and on the passage 
home he had treated me almost without contempt, so far 
forgetting himself once or twice as to actually approve of 
some things that I had done, so that I flattered myself that 
I should really accomplish my ambition and make a second 
voyage with him ; and after we got to our berth and father 



402 ON MANY SEAS 

came aboard and asked me how I had made out with the 
Dutchman, I told him gleefully that I had broken the record 
and should make another voyage in her. 

" Has he told you so? " asked father. 

" Not in so many words, but I know by his actions that 
I suit him," said I. 

" Don't you be too sure of that ; he's a queer Dutchman, 
I tell you : and that is one of the things which he prides 
himself on ; that no mate is any good, and that he himself 
is the only man who can take care of this old ship." 

And sure enough. Shortly after father went ashore, the 
captain returned aboard, and I was of course very busy 
clearing up the decks when he called me aft, and said : 

"Veil, Mr. Veelyams, I shpose de voyage is up, ain'd it? " 

You bet your life I knew what that meant, so I said : 

"Why, yes, of course ; but I want to leave things a little 
ship-shape before I go ashore." 

" Veil, yes, of course dat's right ; I tought mebbe you 
expected to stay aboard ; but you know, Mr. Veelyams, you 
and I vas not brought up alike." 

" God forbid ! " said I. " If we were, I should be an old 
Dutchwoman like yourself." 

" Yes," said he, and went below, while I packed my dun- 
nage and went ashore, to be laughed at by my father for 
having so overestimated my ability to please. 

As we were towing up the bay, I saw the finest specimen 
of marine architecture I had ever laid eyes on in all my 
travels. She was a great big four-masted, four-skysail-yard 
ship, lying at anchor in the upper bay. She was entirely 
unlike all the four-masted monstrosities which I had ever 
seen before, in that her proportions were simply perfect. 
She was so splendidly sparred, that it was only at the second 
glance that you noticed that she was a four-master. And 
her masts were stayed and her yards squared geometrically 



SQUARE ACCOUNTS WITH LYNCH 403 

true. The finely tapering point of her long flying jib boom 
had just the slight droop to it to give her a most finished 
and graceful appearance. Her black and shining hull, al- 
though of immense proportions, — she must have been a 
ship of between four and five thousand tons' register, — 
was built on the fine lines known to seamen as medium 
clipper, combining speed and carrying capacity and sea- 
worthiness in the highest degree. The gently flowing bows, 
graceful sheer of waist and half-elliptic stern, together with 
her long, slim skysail poles, surmounted by gilt balls, pro- 
claimed her nationality to the trained eye of the seaman. 
And it didn't need the stars and stripes floating from her 
monkey gaff to tell me that she was the product of a Maine 
shipyard. 

She was the beau ideal, the perfection, of the Yankee 
ship-builder's art. And riglit here I rise to remark that, 
while American style is aped by the Nova Scotiaman, 
and approached by the Norwegians, it is not, and I be- 
lieve never wiU be, equalled by any of the nations of the 
earth. 

A "homeward bound" pennant of more than her own 
length, and tipped with a silver ball, streamed gracefully 
far astern on the gentle breeze. 

On her cutwater stood a mammoth figure of a woman, 
robed in pure white drapery, one bare and beautifully 
rounded arm holding aloft a blazing star ; the other ex- 
tended the taper index finger, pointing ahead into the 
unknown — but who shall say unknowable ? 

This much I caught in a rapid glance ; but, before I 
could make out her name, I was obliged to attend to some 
duty on board the venerable woodpile, of which I had the 
honour to be chief mate under a Dutch captain. And the 
old Stanton never looked so much like a canal boat or a 
coal hulk as she did when I transferred my enraptured 



404 ON MANY SEAS 

gaze from that magnificent queen of the seas to her own 
faded charms. 

Ah, well ! it is given to but few in this vale of disap- 
pointments to be intimately associated with the grand and 
the beautiful. 

The majority of us must plod along, thankful even to be 
alive. A very few years ago I would have been exceed- 
ingly proud of the idea of being first mate even of the old 
Stanton or, in fact, of anything ; and now here I was 
despising the poor old ship just because I had seen a 
finer. I stayed with my father and loafed around, taking 
it nice and easy for a couple of weeks ; and at last, one 
morning, as my funds were running low, I took a notion to 
go over to New York and look round a bit, to see what 
chance there was of getting a ship. 

As I stood on the bow of the ferry-boat, smoking, I 
became aware that the big ship I had seen down the bay 
was lying at a wharf near the Fulton ferry slip, and I gazed 
at and admired her aU over again. Oh ! I thought to my- 
self, what a sensation it must be to command such a ship as 
that. It almost seemed too much glory for one man. And 
yet I knew, of course, that some man did command her; 
and I believe that if he had appeared to me then I would 
have taken off my hat and paid him homage, as being the 
most fortunate and most to be envied of all the human race. 
As the ferry-boat passed near her stern I saw her name. I 
expected it would be Magnificent, — it didn't seem as if 
anything else would be appropriate, — but it wasn't. It was 
a name, however, well fitted to the times in which we live. 
She was called the Electric Age, of Thomaston, Maine. 

I mentally resolved that before I recrossed the East 
River I would go down to her wharf and look and look, 
and admire her, and hate myself until I couldn't stand it 
any longer ; but I didn't. I fell in with some old acquaint- 



SQUARE ACCOUNTS WITH L\T^CH 405 

ance, and we stood around and chinned and lied about our 
various adventures since we had last met, until I had to 
hurry over to Brooklyn or miss my ride home with father. 

Other things occurred to occupy my mind for several 
days, and I had about recovered from my raptures over the 
big ship when, one day as I was walking along South Street, 
I caught a gUmpse ahead of me of a rather short and stocky 
figure clad in a long, handsome coat, and surmounted by a 
plug hat which, though not exactly immaculate, yet had the 
appearance of not having been worn every day, but rather 
of having been carefully preserved for perhaps a generation 
and only worn on state occasions, or at any rate at long 
intervals. 

Something about the back of the individual as he plodded 
leisurely along, jostled roughly by the crowd of longshore- 
men and sailors, seemed to strike me as being famihar, and 
yet it didn't resemble in the least anybody I knew. Still 
I couldn't help thinking that I had seen it somewhere. I 
increased my pace slightly, and, as he was taking it good 
and easy, I soon drew up on him. When I saw the grizzled 
hair under the hat, and the iron-gray whiskers protruding 
from each side of his face, I was still more sure that I had 
known him somewhere. 

As I passed him, I took a sidelong glance at a very round, 
rosy, and jolly face, almost covered by the luxuriant growth 
of curling gray whiskers, and brightened by a pair of twin- 
kling gray eyes, which seemed on the watch for something 
to laugh about. Such a profound sense of hearty good 
nature did the whole face convey that I could hardly refrain 
from slapping him on the back and singing out, " Hello, old 
fellow 1 How are you? " 

And I knew him, too. Yes ; but who on earth was he ? 
Where had I been acquainted with that rotund figure and 
jovial countenance? 



406 ON MANY SEAS 

I passed him, and walked on a couple of blocks, cudgel- 
ling my brains to remember who he was, when like a flash 
it came to me — Captain Hurlburt of the old Tanjore, in 
which I had left home fifteen years before. I turned on my 
heel and hurried back to meet him. He was still rolling 
along at the same easy gait, and putting his big walking- 
stick down with a solid thud at every step. I touched my 
hat, and stuck out my flipper. 

"Captain Hurlburt, I beheve?" said I. 

His laughing eyes took on a stern look, and he raised his 
big stick as if to hit me. 

" Clear out, darn ye ! Sheer off ! I know ye ! Go on 
about your business now ; I ain't so green as I look ! I've 
been here before, and a good many times, too ! " 

I was thunderstruck. I didn't expect he would know me 
after so many years ; and if he did, I certainly didn't expect 
such a reception as that from my old commander. 

Then the thought occurred to me that he might have 
mistaken me for somebody else, so I said : 

" Captain, I don't think you know me, do you? " 

" I know ye well enough. I have seen just such fellers as 
you be before. Clear out, now, before I call a policeman 
and have ye locked up ! " 

"Why, captain," said I, "who do you think I am?" 

" I know who ye be, I tell ye ! You are one of these 
handshakers ; that's who you be !" 

" You're mistaken, captain. I was once a boy on board 
of the old Tajijo^'e. Don't you remember sailing from New 
York to Melbourne fifteen years ago, and from there on the 
way to Hong Kong we captured a Chinese pirate junk, and 
one of the ship's boys got his fingers chopped off? " said I, 
holding up my hand and showing the marks of that, my first 
and only naval battle. 

A look of surprised incredulity spread over his face. 



SQUARE ACCOUNTS WITH LYNCH 407 

"Was that you?" said he. 

" Yes, sir ; that was me. And now, captain, that you 
know I am not a professional handshaker, how d'ye do?" 

The old, familiar, good-natured look returned to his face, 
as, shifting his cane to his left hand, he grasped my right, 
and shook it with a hearty vigour, which proved to me that 
the fifteen years which had elapsed since I last saw him had 
found in him a tough knot. 

" Why, my boy, how do you do ? How do you do ? You 
must excuse me for my mistake ; but I had been reading 
in the paper this morning, before I came ashore, about the 
tricks of the handshakers, as they call them, and was just 
thinking of them when you came up and hailed, and I says 
to myself, 'Well, I'll be hanged, here's one of 'em now.' 
Didn't remember ye, ye know. That was a good while ago • 
you was a boy then. Let's see. You left the ship in Lon- 
don, didn't you ? Yes, yes ; I remember now. I didn't 
come back to New York for two or three years after that. 
Went to Abyssinia, you know, with supplies from Calcutta 
to the British army, time of the Abyssinian war. When I 
did come back to New York, your father boarded me away 
down the bay ; came down to see you, you know. Was 
awfully cut up to find you wasn't aboard, and I hadn't seen 
nor heard of you for years. That was your father, wasn't 
it? That's the boy you was, hey ? " 

I told him yes, that was me. 

" Well, what ye doin' now ? In business in New York, 
hey? Want to sell me some stores, I suppose?" 

I told him no, I was still going to sea. Was in fact look- 
ing for a ship now. 

" Sho ! you don't say so? I don't suppose you go before 
the mast yet ; a bright young feller like you ought to have a 
vessel of his own before this time." 

I told him that I had not yet got a vessel of my own, but 



408 ON MANY SEAS 

had got as far towards it as I could without money to buy a 
share. 

" So you go as mate now, hey? How long you been going 
as mate ? " 

I told him ; and we walked and talked along for a while, 
and finally he stopped in front ,of a freight broker's office, 
and said : 

" Excuse me Mr. — er, er — " 

" Williams, sir," said I. 

" Yes, yes, to be sure, — Mr. Williams ; strange how I for- 
get names." 

Not so strange either, when you remember that I was only 
a boy, and he probably never heard me addressed by any 
other name than Fred. 

" I must be getting old ; though I don't feel it a bit. No, 
sir, not a bit. Now, Mr. Williams, I've got to go in here a 
bit to attend to some business, but I'd like to have you come 
aboard and take dinner with me, for old sake's sake, if you 
can spare the time ; will you? " 

I told him I should be very much pleased indeed to do 
so. He said he dined at four o'clock sharp, and, telling me 
to be sure to be on time, was just passing in the door, when 
I called after him, saying : 

"Excuse me, captain, but where does the Tanjore lie?" 

"The Tanjore? Oh! I don't know; she is a 'country 
walla.' I sold her six years ago, out in Bombay, to a Port- 
uguese merchant. I've got a new ship. Built her myself, 
just exactly as I wanted her. She lies down near Fulton 
Ferry. You can't miss her ; for if I do say it, there isn't 
another one like her under the sun. She's the Electric Age. 
You'll find her all right. Excuse me, now ; business before 
pleasure, you know; " and in he went. 



CHAPTER XLVI 

I DINE WITH THE CAPTAIN, AND GET A SURPRISE. — MATE 

OF THE Electric Age. — Captain at last. — Good-bye. 

Well, here was luck. I was actually invited to dine 
aboard the ship which had almost thrown me into ecstasies 
at the first sight I had of her ; and with her captain too. 
I'd go right down and have a look at her. No, hanged if I 
would. I'd wait until I could march over the gangway with 
her captain, and, as I felt sure, her principal owner. I had 
a good three hours to wait ; and I went and wired to father 
not to wait for me, as I had an engagement to dine out. 

Then I went down to the Battery Park, and sat on a 
bench and built air-castles. I would strike the old man for 
the second mate's birth if it was vacant, or even the boat- 
swain's — anything to make even one voyage in such a ship 
as that. 

It seemed as if there never were such long hours as those 
two which I put in on that bench. 

Finally, at three o'clock, I got up and sauntered slowly 
up South Street. I wanted to be in time to intercept him 
on his return, and go aboard with him. So I hung around 
in sight of the pier, admiring my first love from afar, and 
kept a bright lookout for him. As it drew near four 
o'clock, I made up my mind that probably he had gone 
aboard some time before, and I should have to go alone ; 
but no, at ten minutes to four he appeared, hurrying this 

409 



4IO ON MANY SEAS 

time ; and I made sail to cross his bows just as he entered 
the pier. I could see that his brow was slightly clouded, 
and I almost felt like drawing back. It hardly seemed that 
he really could have wished me to dine with him ; and yet 
his manner had been so genial that I braced myself with the 
remembrance of it, and, stepping briskly forward, hailed 
him. His brow cleared instantly, and again he clasped my 
hand in his honest palm with a friendly grip, which was very 
reassuring, and congratulated me on my punctuality. If 
he had only known how I prized that invitation, he would 
not have seen anything remarkable in it. 

" Well, there she is, Mr. Williams. What do you think of 
her, hey?" 

I went into raptures at once, and told him I had seen her 
when I came up the bay. 

When I came to be alongside of her and looked along 
her magniiicent length ; then up to the towering bows 
which overhung the pier ; and up yet to the lofty skysail 
yards, — then indeed I appreciated what a grand ship 
she was. 

"What's her tonnage, captain?" 

" Forty-eight hundred and seventy-five tons' register, and 
I have taken nearly six thousand tons of wheat from San 
Francisco to Queenstown. But come aboard and let's have 
something to eat. I've only had a cup of coffee to-day." 

And aboard we went, and when I saw the breadth of beam 
I was astounded. Good heavens ! the ship had a deck as 
big as a down-east farm. 

" There, young man," said the captain, glancing aloft. 
"What do you think of them sticks, hey? Oregon pine, 
every one of 'em. Brought 'em round the Horn myself, in 
the old Tanjore. I tell you, when you get topmast, top- 
gallant, and royal stunsail, and all them staysails set on her, 
you've got some clothes hung out to dry. But come ; we'll 



CAPTAIN AT LAST 4II 

have the steward growhng if we keep his dinner waiting." 
And so into the cabin we went. 

And what a cabin it was ; as spacious as a town hall, and 
as richly furnished as a yacht. All hard wood. None of 
your pine and white paint. He told me that he had been 
ten years collecting the lumber for his cabin, so it was per- 
fectly seasoned when put up ; and looked, as indeed it was, 
the finest kind of cabinet work. Not a joint visible any- 
where, although she was nearly five years old, and had 
rounded the Horn three times. 

We had a fine dinner, and I soon found that the old 
man's weak point was his ship. And who could blame 
him? for certainly she was without a peer. It is a great 
thing to design, build, and command the finest ship in the 
world. 

After dinner he showed me about ; and at every turn I 
saw something to admire ; everything was so handy, so 
complete, showing that she had been indeed built and 
equipped under the master's eye, and, as he said, just 
exactly as he wanted her. 

She carried thirty-two able seamen before the mast, three 
mates and a boatswain, carpenter and mate, sailmaker and 
mate, steward, stewardess, and two cooks, — forty-five hands, 
all told. And in the after part of the house she had a forty- 
horse donkey-engine, to which, as he informed me, aU hal- 
yards, braces, clew-lines, and reef-tackles were taken which 
they could conveniently get to her, stationary lead blocks 
being placed in the deck for that purpose. 

" And now, Mr. Williams, you have seen her. What do 
you think of her? " 

I told him I thought she was perfection. 

During the three months that the Electric Age was at the 
dock I became a frequent visitor to Captain Hurlburt. He 
appeared to enjoy the mutual recollections of the voyages 



412 ON MANY SEAS 

we had taken under such different circumstances, and never 
failed to give me or my father a hearty welcome. 

Not many days before he was to sail he invited me to 
dinner with him, and told me afterwards how he had been 
obliged to get rid of his chief mate. Then turning the con- 
versation to his never failing topic, the good points of his 
ship, he said : 

" So you like her, hey? " 

"Like her, captain?" said I; "I more than hke her! 
much more ! How much, I can't express." 

" Ha, ha ! I thought you would," said he. " Everybody 
does. I'm rather stuck on her myself. Well, now, if you 
like her so much, why not come along to sea with me in 
her, and see what she's good for in blue water? " 

I gasped out, " In what capacity?" 

" Mate, of course. You said you was a mate, didn't you." 

"But," said I, "I never was a mate of such a ship as 
this." 

" Ain't but four that ever have been ; and three of 'em 
was no good. The other one died at sea the first voyage." 

" Well, captain, if you are willing to trust me with your 
ship." 

" Trust you ! Why, certainly. You won't steal her, I 
guess." And he laughed heartily at the idea. "When can 
you come aboard? " 

"To-morrow," I told him. 

"All right; come along, then. The sooner, the better. 
Here, steward ! I have persuaded Mr. Williams to try a 
voyage as mate with me. He will be aboard to-morrow. 
See that his room is ready for him, and make him com- 
fortable. I don't ask you to stay aboard nights, Mr. Wil- 
liams, as I have a watchman whom I have employed for 
the last thirty years, when in New York. But be on hand 
during the day to receive the cargo as it comes alongside." 



CAPTAIN AT LAST 413 

I went home that night and didn't sleep much. I lay 
awake planning and thinking", and hugging myself over my 
great good luck. Captain Hurlburt didn't interfere and 
meddle much with his mate's duties, and he was just the 
kind of man I had always wished to run across. And what 
a ship ! 

In the morning, I was over in good season, and started in. 
i found that he invariably picked out his crew himself, and 
would have none but such as suited him. He was partial to 
Swedes, as they were good seamen, hearty, robust, strong 
men, and good-natured fellows who don't growl and kick at 
every little thing. 

When the captain's wife came down from Maine she 
expressed herself as very much pleased to see me. She 
had aged much more than her husband, and looked rather 
feeble, but was still the same quiet, gentle, ladylike Ameri- 
can woman whom I had known so many years before. 
She was the only woman whom I have ever been ship- 
mates with whom the crew did not despise. Even Old 
Ned, away back in the Tanjore, admitted that there was 
nothing much the matter with her, and to me she was 
always a good friend, and so was her husband. Captain 
Hurlburt was by all odds the most agreeable man whom I 
ever sailed with in any capacity. He trusted his officers to 
attend to their duties without any interference from him. 
If he had any suggestions to make or any advice to offer, or 
any wish to make known, it was done to me privately in the 
cabin ; so that to all appearance I had entire charge of the 
work, for he never personally gave an order to any one else 
on board except the steward, carpenter, or second mate, 
when he himself was on deck, and then it was only to make, 
trim, or take in sail. 

I sailed with him five years, and learned to respect and 
admire him more and more every day. At last, on arrival 



414 ON MANY SEAS 

in New York from Hong Kong, his wife, not feeling very 
well, he took her home. And when sailing time came, he 
handed over the charge of the ship to me. 

I went to Yokohama, and when the cargo was nearly out, 
I cabled to the captain, telling him how freights were, sug- 
gesting what I thought would be advisable to do, but asking 
for instructions. His answer was characteristic : " Do what 
you think best." 

Well, I kept the ship out over two years, and then, being 
in Liverpool, I brought her home to get her re-coppered 
and overhauled. 

I came to Boston with her, and as the tugboat was sheer- 
ing her into her berth, I spied a short, stout, rosy-cheeked 
figure on the string piece, and raised my hat to Captain 
Hurlburt. He took his off, and waving it over his head, 
shouted, " Hooray ! " 

As she neared the wharf, I told the mate to get a side lad- 
der over. " Never mind any side ladder, chuck me a rope's 
end," said the old captain. I threw him the end of a brace, 
and though he was nearly seventy years old, he swung him- 
self into the chains, and climbed aboard as spry as a kitten. 

He grasped my hand, and slapping me on the shoulder, 
shouted out : " How are ye, my boy ? You've done well, 
and I'm proud of you." I summoned all my modesty to 
my aid, and told him I was rather proud of myself. 

He insisted that I should come ashore at once, enter the 
ship at the Custom House, and drive out with him to his 
home to dinner. He said his orders were not to come 
home without me. " And you wouldn't keep an old feller 
away from his dinner, would you?" said he. This pro- 
gramme we carried out ; and how I enjoyed that drive out 
to Roxbury, behind his team of dapple grays, and how I 
admired the old man's skilful handling of the craft through 
the narrow and crowded channels in Boston. 



CAPTAIN AT LAST 415 

When he had the right of way, he held his luff, and 
wouldn't keep off a point for anybody. I beUeve he would 
have allowed a locomotive to cut him down to the water's 
edge, before he would have shifted his helm a spoke. But 
on the other hand, when he was running free, he gave all 
the other craft the whole channel if they wanted it. 

He pointed with his whip to a splendid mansion built on 
a slight eminence, around a curve in the road, and told me 
that that was his house. He had built it himself. " None 
o' your contract jobs for me," said he. " I want a house 
which will carry me safe through all weathers, and not be 
starting a butt the first time she gets into a choppy sea ; so 
that you have to pump her all the way home. I wouldn't 
be a bit afraid to try a Cape Horner in that house, if she 
was caulked and coppered." 

By this time we had arrived at the gate. The old man 
jammed his helm down, let fly his head sheets, and shook 
her up in the wind ; and we jumped ashore before she had 
entirely lost her way. It was a neat manoeuvre ; but then 
he was always famous for neat manoeuvres. 

As we walked up the broad gravel path, he pointed out 
the peculiar beauties of the place to me, and they were 
legion. His long sea training manifested itself even here ; 
and it looked as if every blade of grass had been placed 
just where you saw it, with orders to stay there until re- 
lieved. 

We were met at the door by Mrs. Hurlburt, who greeted 
me very cordially, and welcomed me to her beautiful home. 
And how she had improved ! Life ashore evidently agreed 
with her. She had put on considerable flesh since I saw 
her last, and her cheeks were almost as rosy as the old 
captain's. 

We sat and talked a half-hour or so. I recounted the 
salient points of my voyages, and rendered an account of 



41 6 ON MANY SEAS 

my stewardship. The captain expressed himself as highly 
satisfied. Presently a demure little maid appeared at the 
door and piped us to dinner ; and as I glanced round at 
the glittering crystal and brilliant silverware, I couldn't help 
thinking how good it was for this old, tempest-tossed mari- 
ner to find such a snug haven to end his days in, and how 
well he deserved all he had got. 

The dinner, which was superb, passed off pleasantly, and 
then the captain and I went out for a smoke and to inspect 
the premises. 

After we had finished our cigars, and I had duly admired 
all the beauties and conveniences of the place, he said : 
" Well now, let us go in. I want to talk business to you a 
bit." So we adjourned to the hbrary, and there in the 
presence of and with the consent of his wife, he formally 
made over the command of the ship to me, and on terms 
the liberality of which I will not state, lest I be deemed 
guilty of romancing. 

And now, dear reader, shipmate, friend, my tale is told ; 
my yarn is spun to the very last twist, and the ends knotted ; 
and whenever you see in the papers that the ship Electric 
Age, Captain Frederick B. Williams, is in port, come down 
and see me. 

The only introduction you will need, will be an assertion 
to the ship-keeper that you have bought and read my book. 
He has his orders to introduce you into the after cabin, the 
sanctum sanctorum of that nautical autocrat, " the old man," 
and I will guarantee you a hearty hand-grasp and a sailor's 
welcome ; and if you are a lady, you shall overhaul the 
voluminous collection of curios which I have gathered in 
many strange lands, and choose for yourself a souvenir of 
your visit to me and my gallant ship. And if you are a gen- 
tleman — there's a locker under my berth to which I alone 
have the key, and it shall be opened in honour of your visit ; 



CAPTAIN AT LAST 417 

for though a temperate man, I trust I am not hidebound, 
and we'll drink a bumper to the prosperity of our friendship. 

And then I'll show you over my beautiful ship as she lies 
at her pier, the impersonation of dignified strength in re- 
pose. x\h, but you should see her in her glory, sweeping 
down the trades with thousands of yards of snow-white can- 
vas spreading far out over her sides, and towering to the very 
zenith, as she glides smoothly along sixteen and eighteen 
knots an hour — a vision of queenly beauty. 

Or, again, off the Horn, under her topsails, breasting gal- 
lantly the huge seas which roll continuously round the world. 

At such times my old heart throbs, and my cheeks flush 
with pride, for I love my ship more and more every day. 

Sometimes as I pace the deck in the brilliant tropical 
moonlight, or stand under the lee of the tarpaulin in the 
weather rigging watching the sprays fly over her fore topsail 
yard, — for I am a driver, — my memory goes back to the 
day, some thirty years ago, when a boy I stood on the deck 
of the old Wmdward, by my father's side, spellbound, in 
awe of her and her captain. 

The Windward ! pshaw ! I could almost hoist her in my 
quarter davits. 

Yes, I am a happy man ; for if I haven't quite made my 
pfle yet, at any rate it is accumulating in a satisfactory man- 
ner ; and as I pause occasionally in my tramp of the quar- 
ter-deck, and glance down through the cabin skylight, I can 
see seated at her sewing a dear little black-eyed woman, a 
native of the old Bay State, who — but this is a sea story. 



FINIS. 



THE MEN OF THE MOSS-HAGS. 

Being a history from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun 
in the Glenkens, and told over again 

BY 

S. R. CROCKETT, 

Author of " The Stickit Minister" " The Raiders" etc., etc. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 



" All the fascinating charm of Mr. Crockett greets the reader on every page 
of this book. It is history and story freely combined. Only a few lines of any 
of his sketches of scenery will set the sympathies in active motion, delighting 
the imagination and pleasing the taste. . . . The story itself cannot be ana- 
lyzed in a brief notice, it is so full of characters sprung right out of the soil, so 
vigorously active in its movements and motives, so actual in all that it depicts 
and describes." — ■ Bostoti Courier. 

"The subject is a grand one, grandly treated." — New York Observer. 



A SET OF ROGUES. 

To wit : Christopher Sutton, John Dawson, The Senor Don Sanchez 
Del Castillo de Castelane, and Moll Dawson. Their Wicked 
Conspiracy and a True Account of their Travels and Adventures. 
Together with Many Surprising Things, now Disclosed for the 
First Time as the Faithful Confession of Christopher Sutton. 



FRANK BARRETT, 

Author of " The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane" " The 
Great Hesper" etc. 

i2ino. Cloth. $1.50. 



" ' A Set of Rogues ' is a delight. ... It has humor, pathos, and incident. 
No jollier, honester rogues than his ever escaped hanging and proved them- 
selves worthy of good fortune. . . . Splendid. . . . most entertaining." 

" With the marked revival of interest at the present time in sixteenth and 
seventeenth century romance and adventure, the author has been fortunate in 
the selection of his scene, and his story is one of the most ingenious and attrac- 
tive ones of the season." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEVT^ YORK. 



IN THE SMOKE OF WAR. 

A STORY OF CIVIL STRIFE. 
By WALTER RAYHOND. 

i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 



" A strong story dealing with the times of Cromwell and the Cavaliers and 
Roundheads. One gets as good a view of the lights and shades and the motives 
of country life from, it as perhaps from any late book of fiction." — Bosto?i Globe. 

" ' In the Smoke of War' is a brave, strong, good story, written with spirit 
and feeling, concerning the tragic events in Somersetshire immediately preceding 
Cromwell's deliverance of the people from the cruel tyranny of the king's troops. 
Its stirring incidents are narrated with simplicity, naturalness, and force, and the 
individualities of its characters are very strongly marked." — JVeiv York World. 



A PITILESS PASSION. 

By ELLA MACMAHON, 

Author of "A Nevo Note" "A Modern Afan.' 
i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 



" It is a strong story, strongly told." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 

" A book well worth reading." — Boston Times. 

" The book is a capital piece of work, and is full of clever descriptions and 
dialogues." — Cinci//nati Tribime. 

" In ' A Pitiless Passion' there is undeniable and considerable power. It is 
also a book of no little literary ability." — Congregationalist. 

" It is almost with a feeling of admiration that one closes the book, so con- 
sistent and thorough has the author been." — Chicago Evening Jo2ir7ial. 



FREDERICK. 

By L. B. WALFORD, 

Author of "The Baby's Grandmother" "The Alischlef of Monica" etc, 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.25. 



" It is refreshing to take up such a novel as ' Frederick.' Mrs. Walford 
posse.sses to an eminent degree the knack of writing a wholly pleasing and 
entertaining story, without a particle of morbid sentiment, — a delightful picture 
of English family and village life. A book like ' Frederick ' is better than medi- 
cine to those who are ' low in their minds,' and it is a pity that such books are 
so rare." — The, Beacon. 

" The pleasantly wrought scenes of luxurious life in its many phases are an 
enticement not to be resisted. The reader will not be more seduced by the de- 
lightfully natural current of the story than by the entering page on which it is 
recorded. A nicer English tale for a sofa or easy-chair solace is not often to be 
had for the search." — Boston Cojtrier. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEV^ YORK. 










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